Vusi Thembekwayo loves to talk. He says he will do for talking what Muhammad Ali did for boxing. Ali told the world he was “The greatest”. So does Thembekwayo.
To him, great public speakers, like boxers, are not trained, they are born. His wit is the glue that binds his diverse audiences. John Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia called him the “rock star of public speaking”; global strategist and scenario-planning guru Clem Sunter said he was “simply riveting”; Sir Bob Geldof said “Vusi is a f*cken great speaker,” according to Thembekwayo.
Thembekwayo has always been an overachiever. At 21, he ran a successful consulting firm, then South Africa’s only black-owned Forensic Marketing agency. At 25, he was the youngest director of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, a bourse turning over $1.3 billion a year. At 29, he delivered 214 presentations, in 21 countries charging up to $8,000 a time. At 30, he influences over $300 million in seven companies he holds shares in. His companies operate in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria.
As a child, Thembekwayo studied by candlelight and used to wake up before dawn to prepare for school. His father had started a business with their house as collateral.
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“The bank was about to repossess our house so my mother and my siblings had to move in with relatives. We stayed in a small backroom and had to wake up very early, make fire and make porridge to eat,” he says.
“One minute we had a home and were being dropped off at school in our father’s car and the next we were suffering commuting kilometers in taxis to school. That experience shapes how I look at the world and my understanding of risk. I understand that whatever it is you have, tomorrow it could be all gone.”
His father resolved the debt situation but couldn’t escape tragedy. Thieves shot him nine times leaving him to bleed to death at the side.
“This was a very difficult time in my life. My dad and I were best friends. We did everything together and went everywhere together. The only reason I wasn’t with him that day is because my mum was ill and I stayed with her at home when my dad was shot for his cell phone.”
At this moment, a tear forms in Thembekwayo’s eye. “South Africa has a violent past and that narrative continues to find expression in modern South Africa, we condone violence because we find reason to defend why it’s ok to do it and we have a justice system that isn’t sufficiently punitive for people who perpetrate the act. We need to come together as a society to say no matter the reason it is not ok to take a life.”
Left with a single mother, at the age of 15, his big mouth got him into trouble long before it became his fortune. He was forced to take up public speaking as punishment for misbehavior in high school. He was booed off the stage for what everyone thought was a male chauvinistic speech titled: What Women Want.
“The best way to get me to do something is telling me I can’t do it. When they booed me off stage I started working harder to get to where I am,” he says.
Thembekwayo studied for a BCom degree at the University of the Witwatersrand but dropped out because of money. He believes entrepreneurship is practice more than theory.
“Some of the people who get the education are the people who will not move the dial in any meaningful way. The education system in South Africa is and continues to be archaic. I also did a course at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) which was supposed to be a year but took me three years because they didn’t understand how I think. South African business schools are behind on how you educate a Vusi.”
“You don’t need too many things to start a business. Start where you are. South African young people are really challenged. They have access to DSTV and they see the world in a particular way but the reality doesn’t reflect the world they see. You must recognize what’s around you and build with what you have. If you have a vision for the future, it is important to know nobody starts where they end up.”
This is not just advice for him. It is exactly how he started building his fortune after receiving a standing ovation for a speech for which he was paid a mere R35 (less than $3).
“Former president Thabo Mbeki was the keynote speaker at the event and he gave me a hug and endorsed me at that event telling people to give me more work,” he says.
He used the R35 to make phone calls to all the people he met at that event. He says entrepreneurship is starting something that other people don’t see and getting them to see it, believe in it, buy in it and help you build it.
Even when he became a well-known figure, life has not always been milk and honey. When he decided to start his company, My Growth Fund (MGF), it ushered in six of his worst months as an entrepreneur.
Thembekwayo failed to acquire funding for the company. When he had money, in the 2011-2012 financial year, he invested $274,000 in a steel company. Excited, he neglected to do proper due diligence. The investment went into a black hole. There were neither contracts nor legal documents to save him.
“I wasn’t thorough. I didn’t check if the company I was buying into had legacy liability or legacy issues. I was over eager. The entrepreneur convinced me that everything was going to go well, only to find out my money was used to pay off her debts. She had creditors and suppliers who she owed and she did not disclose this to me. She also had the South African Revenue Services coming after her.”
Part of this $274,000 was supposed to pay his own staff.
“I didn’t know what to do. All that I had was gone. What was I going to tell my staff? They also had their own lives and bills. But this situation taught me that if you are honest with people they understand. I told my staff the truth about what had happened and they worked hard, booked me for more speaking jobs and I was able to pay them,” he says.
“I learned an important lesson to take my time. Where you are going is guaranteed. There is no doubt, so don’t rush, follow the process.”
Thembekwayo started over.
“No matter how much you trust the other person when doing an investment, make sure the numbers support it, make sure you cover your basics, and the legal side holds water,” he says.
Today if he buys into a business he moves all the capital and operating capital into a separate business to make sure there is no history to infect the investment.  Public speaking is one of the ways he makes money as an entrepreneur.
“Vusi is a very funny guy when he gives his talks. He is always well informed on the subjects he talks about such as business and investment opportunities. I always watch his YouTube videos and follow his advice,” says Thato Mokoena, a South African small business entrepreneur.
Thembekwayo studied by candlelight, his father was brutally killed, business schools didn’t understand him, he was booed off stage, he lost millions, but survived to tell the tale from the stage where he was once scorned.

He survived failure, tragedy and lost millions

The business of motivational speaking in Africa is in boom. In the last two years the continent has seen an influx of top international speakers such as Richard Branson, Steadman Graham and John Demartini. But in this digital age, where almost everything is available online for free, it’s surprising that many are still willing to pay $1,000 to hear someone speak.
South African business coach, Vusi Thembekwayo, has been in the business for the last 10 years. He says the reason for the sudden interest in Africa is because the American industry is saturated, the European’s are sceptical but South Africa’s fast growing business sector has people wanting to hear from business gurus. Thembekwayo says although there are many professionally trained speakers, there are also people ready to make a quick buck.
“I think that there is a very large proportion of speakers out there who are [scammers]&#8230; There are the guys who go home and read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey, and then the following morning rate themselves as speakers…”
The industry consists of a variety of businesspeople, sportsmen, psychologists and professionally trained speakers. Some speak loudly with rehearsed PowerPoint presentations while others can be soft-spoken. All speakers will attempt to encourage you and make you feel that you can achieve success and live your dreams. During presentations you can also expect a book promotion and a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“I see the Americans here doing their really big rah-rah conferences. [They’ll say] ‘If you come now we can sell you a package at R10,000 ($960) just run to the back… it’s only going at  [that price] today, if you buy tomorrow it will be R50,000 ($4,800). Buy my package today and I’m going to teach you how to make a million rand through sales,’” says Thembekwayo.
It seems one of the most uncomfortable topics for speakers is money. But, how much do they charge for their words?
Thembekwayo benchmarks himself against some of the industry’s best, such as Jim Collins, Malcolm Gladwell, Adrian Gore and Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita. He charges his clients R45,000 ($4,300) for a 45 to 60 minute session, the size of the crowd ranges from 15 to 3,000 people.
“I don’t allow my clients to say it’s too expensive because if you say it’s too expensive then you don’t want what it is that I’m offering you and I’m happy you go elsewhere.”
For sales trainer Barry Mitchell, finding his cost was a matter of trial and error by seeing what the client was willing to pay and how comfortable he felt charging them for his service. The founder of the Uncovering Your Greatness program, Mitchell offers one-day free seminars, private coaching, which costs between R15,000 ($1,400) and R20,000 ($1,900), and 5-day seminars which cost R40,000 ($3,800).
“The better you do, and the more value you add, the more your self-worth grows and the more you could charge. But, I’m very particular about the more I charge the more value I have to add.”
Mitchell says the reason people are willing to pay to hear someone speak has less to do with money and more to do with the value they hope it will add to their lives and businesses.
“[When] I got to chat with Robert Kiricsi it wasn’t anything he told me that made me think, wow that will change my life. It was the value of me just being able to sit and I thought  this guy just thinks a little differently to what I’m used to. If he thinks like that and he’s done so well, then how do I think?”
“Let’s face it, what we teach, is nothing new under the sun. I think, a lot of the time, it’s how we teach it and it’s the connection the speaker makes with other people,” says Mitchell.
At the end of the day, you can attend all the motivational talks in the world and read countless books on how other people became successful. But, ultimately you have to make the decision on whether to act now or spend your life waiting for the right time.

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He survived failure, tragedy and lost millions

Money Talks In The Business of Motivational Speaking