David currently serves immediate past president for SITE Global and past President of the South African chapter of SITE. David is regarded as a pioneer in the field of online incentive point banking and online reward fulfilment, developing the proprietary software Netuwin.com, for this commercial purpose. A global motivational event and incentive travel expert, having travelled, worked and consulted to a large number of destinations and global corporate accounts.
My Definition Of Success | Success for me is a continuous striving to provide an environment for my family and colleagues that allows life to flourish at all levels in a healthy and happy way. Yes this definition has changed when I was younger and single it was much more self-centred and materially focused.
I Am Driven By | My passions and gifts drive me and my values guide me.
A Key Talent | The strength that I would like to highlight is the ability to see the bigger picture and create solutions that help achieve something of value.
I personally think that this is a gift that is part of who I am, but also one that was nurtured in the diverse things I studied. I studied economics, psychology, and law at Rhodes University and a post graduate at UNISA business school in Labor Economics. I would also have loved to have had more time to study politics and philosophy.
Today there are many tools and models that can help entrepreneurs with vision and testing of ideas. I think the recent lean business modeling approach and Business Model canvasing is really useful. We so often get caught up in the nuts and bolts of living and existing that we don’t often look up and purposefully direct our efforts towards the goals we want to achieve.
Principles I Live By | The values and principles that that I strive to live by come from my Christian faith. To love one another and to love God is the key to it all for me. From a career perspective to make the most of my God given talents, nurture them and to work smart with honesty and integrity in everything.
How I Use My Mind | Mastery of your thought life is essential and I don’t profess to have it right yet, it’s a lifetime of trying and maturing that is required. Always willing to learn, always keep trying and open to constructive advice for people you really trust.
I genuinely stay away from negative media, conversations and thinking, what you feed your thoughts with greatly influences your mindset. I read positive motivational messages and content regularly as motivation is a daily active endeavor. I have even taken up tweeting my own positive messaging that help me be focused and could be inspirational to others.
Being grateful and thanking God is an important a part of my own mental conditioning.
Dealing With Doubt | Self-doubt and fear can be absolutely paralyzing and a painful states to remain in for long periods. So it’s really important to have a game plan of how to deal with yourself when these times hit. Self-doubt can be minimized when you know you playing to your strengths and not fooling yourself or anyone that you master of all. This however should never stop you for trying something new or stretching yourself to achieve more. Redefining failure from something negative to a very positive concept of learning and coming closer to success is imperative.
The global financial crisis of 09/10 hit our business like many others with clients slashing spending budgets to the survival essentials. We faced the gloom like many other business. Fear really gripped me badly. To overcome I was coached by a good friend to stay in the present and not worry about what tomorrow would bring or not. To identify a list of several activities that I could do to make a difference and work on each one every day, one little step at time. Lots of payer. It helped as soon as I got momentum, got busy and focused with lots of perseverance and faith we overcame.
Performing At My Peak | I don’t always perform at my peak, I have come to realize that adjust accordingly. But what is essential for me is good sleep, exercise a good diet and fun with family and friends.
My Future Dreams And Ambitions | I dream about seeing my children growing up and having a beautiful future in South Africa, becoming truly African with friends from across the continent. Having traveled extensively in Africa and the world. My business plans are to grow my operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Egypt to be similar sized as we are in South Africa from a Pan African perspective. As well as build our partnerships in Brazil, India and Indonesia such that we are the go to specialists in developing world economies in our discipline.
Advice On Building Wealth | Do it well but make sure those are not your only goals in life as you will end up with lots of cash but short changed
The Legacy I Would Like To Leave | I’d like to be remembered as someone who added value and loved much.
