Rowan Spazzoli

Strategist. Lecturer. Consultant

Building up to that moment

Your name gets called out.

You walk onto the stage.

(You try not to stumble)

You hand your hood over.

You kneel.

Dr Max Price taps you on the head. And shakes your hand.

You turn around.

Your hood is placed on you.

You walk off the stage

You pick up your degree.

 

Students visualise this moment from the first time they set foot on campus. Some have already been thinking about it while in high school. In every test, every assignment, every lecture and every exam, you build towards this one moment: your graduation.

It is the magical moment where you attain your degree. It is the most special moment of your university career.

Except it’s not.

The magic happened before then. The magic was getting to lectures when you didn’t feel like it. It was pulling all nighters to finish projects and essays. It was pushing through exams year after year ( and sometimes during protests).

It was fighting the university system when it tried to exclude you. It was having the courage to start over when you failed. It was battling mental health problems every day and still, somehow, managing to survive.

The moment the world sees

The moment of graduation is special. But it’s special because it is a recognition of growth. Of learning. Of struggle. Of perseverance.

It’s a recognition of all those other special moments when no one else was watching.

And now, the whole world sees you.

I’d like to have a special shoutout here for Tiisetso Malinga, who is my mentee, my mentor and one of my closest friends. Tii, you have done the most incredible thing to get through this degree. You fought so hard. And in the end you won. We are all so proud of what you have done. Congratulations!

Image is from before Tiisetso’s graduation ceremony today.

Finally,  a quote that I’ve used before but it fits this situation perfectly:

“When you achieve your dreams, it’s not so much what you get, it’s who you become in achieving them” 

Henry David Thoreau

 

Blog 44/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

 

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Limited upside, exponential downside

EDIT: I’ve had some feedback and critique on this post. Thank you to the people that have brought this to my attention.

The things that the people mentioned in this post have done are wrong, in all instances. None of it is excusable. It is wrong regardless of whether there is a consequence or not. It is wrong whether they factored in the risk or not.

The one person that commented said this, which is spot on:

“men shldn’t be wary of committing sexual assault just cause it might destroy their career, men shld be wary of committing sexual assault coz it’s a beyond shitty thing to do, cause they have no right to take advantage of any1 that way not just coz they might get fired if they do.”

The discussion on this post missed all of this and I apologize. The argument was more around the behavior economics concepts underlying it then the actual moral issues, which are far more important

I’m going to leave the blog below the same but please keep this edit in mind

Today featured massive scandals and news on an international, local and personal level.

The “The Silence Breakers” were announced as Time Magazine Person of the Year for speaking up about sexual assault. Across the world, many men have been called out for their misconduct.

Steinhoff lost almost R200 billion in market cap due to a massive accounting scandal. To put this in perspective, one analyst described the loss as being bigger than South Africa’s entire platinum mining industry.

On a personal note, 5 students across the courses I’ve been lecturing on have been caught for plagiarism. Some may not graduate because of this.

What struck me about these three cases was that the people making these decisions took on almost exponential levels of risk for a comparatively small gain.

The men in the sexual assault cases actively took on the risk of ruining their own careers. They will potentially end up with charges for what was ultimately a few moments of pleasure. And it must be clear, they ruined their own careers, the people stepping forward didn’t.

The executives at Steinhoff actively took on the risk of their business being destroyed by engaging in accounting fraud. They benefited from seemingly higher profits, but there is ultimately a limit to what they could gain, whereas they could lose everything.

The students in my course actively took on the risk of being expelled from the university, not receiving their degree and even being banned from higher education institutions. They did all to save a few hours on an essay that counts 15% of one of their 13 courses.

A Better Risk Strategy

The alternative to these is very simple. Remove the infinite downside risk entirely by not engaging in the activity. Even if not engaging only brings you a small up side.

The men involved in sexual assault could have either not approached their victims or could have been consensual in their actions. Both may result in no pleasure, but both strategies completely remove the risk of a scandal

The Steinhoff executives could have followed the accounting rules. They may have not made as much money, but they wouldn’t have put their whole business on the line.

And finally, my students could have either told me they weren’t able to write the essays or made an effort to write it themselves, even if it were poor. Ultimately, they would’ve lost around 0.5% off their final GPA, but they would still get their degrees.

It is essential that we are aware of what we are doing when we take on risk, and that we make sure the trade off is worth it

Image is off a cold front rolling in to Cape Town, taken earlier this year

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Activating Superman Mode Wisely

I’ve come to learn recently that what I thought was one of my biggest strengths is actually one of my biggest weaknesses. I’ve dubbed this my “Superman” mode, where I’m able to be hyper productive, fix problems rapidly and can juggle multiple tasks simultaneously.

I used to love this mode. I thought it was the best version of me, the one that helped me achieve and excel at anything I did.

The problem is that Superman mode comes at a cost. I’m able to activate it for a very brief period, and once it runs out, I don’t go back to “normal”. Instead, I end up in a burn out state for a day or two.

I imagine it as putting all the available wood on a fire at the same time. It may make one hell of a flame and warm things up quickly. However, it burns through the wood much more rapidly than anticipated and then you’re left with no fire and no warmth.

I used to think the solution was to have more Superman mode… if I could just get it started again then everything would be fine. However, I failed to realize that there is a finite amount of psychological fuel available to us and once that’s finished it takes a while to build up.

So my new solution is to use Superman mode less frequently, not more. On a day to day basis I aim to keep a steady burn, just enough to keep things warm.

And then, when I need Superman mode (like tonight, as my marking deadline is tomorrow) I can activate it for a brief period to get the job done.

Image is from September when my dad and I ran our first full marathon together. He hurt his knee so I helped him hobble over the line

Update: marking is finished!!!!!!

Ps: a great song to listen to that fits this post is Superman by Five For Fighting. Check it out

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The collaborative nature of social entrepreneurship

Traditional business theory teaches about competitiveness and how a company must outsmart it’s rivals to win. The objective is to win market share, make better products and grow faster than others in the same market.

Social entrepreneurship is different.

Instead of fighting one another, social entrepreneurs are fighting a systemic or societal problem. Therefore, competing with one another makes little sense. You’re on the same team, and you don’t have to defeat the problem all on your own.

Today we had lunch with 3 people who run 2 startups, each of which operate in the same space as our own startups. Over the course of our meal, we all shared our learnings and knowledge. We looked for new ways to collaborate and to help each other fix the problems.

To me, this is far more exciting than trying to out manoeuvre a rival.

By collaborating, we can solve issues better and much faster.

And in doing this, everybody wins.

Image is from a conference called AfricaThink that I was privileged to attend in October.

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Deconstructing our dark fantasies

In discussions with my therapist*, she pointed out that I build very intricate mental models (in her words “fantasies”) of people and use these to predict their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This comes from a place of fear, where I was scared of how people might act and of being terrified of confrontation.

So I have conversations with these “fantasies” instead of with the people they’re about, and then I make my decisions based on these. Often I get it right.

But I often get it wrong too.

Today I took an active step to speak to a person instead of talking to my fantasy of her. And it turns out my fantasy was very very wrong. As a result, so were my decisions and interactions with her.

The outcome was much better than I’d even realized, and it turns out we were actually on the same page the whole time.

Reflecting on this, part of the problem is the difficulty we have communicating as humans. We build mental heuristics, rules of thumbs, which we use. And these can be helpful. But they can also be very wrong. So we need to make an effort to communicate more frequently instead of relying on our mental models

In her words:

I know [these conversations] are not always comfortable, but slowly we chip away at the things that are holding us back from living our best.

*I was going to pretend that I was chatting to a friend, not my therapist, but when I thought about it I realized that we need to continue to fight to destigmatize mental health issues and treatment. So yes, I see a therapist regularly and she has been instrumental in helping me through mental health issues.

Title of this post is based on Dark Fantasies by Kanye West. I’ve been listening to the album on repeat today

Image is of two friends trying to speak through a horse on Seapoint promenade.

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Falling in love with the problem

When we were in Oxford earlier this year for the Global Challenge, the recurring theme was the idea that entrepreneurs should fall in love with the problem, not the solution. This is particularly true of entrepreneurs that are aiming to have a social impact.

It sounds like a very simple thing to do, but it is far from it. When you pour your life into developing a product, a system or a business it is very easy to become infatuated with it. It’s your baby, and you become proud, protective and possessive.

However, this can cause a kind of myopia and might cause you to miss warning signs that your solution isn’t working. Your solution could be built to perfection, but it doesn’t actually solve the problem. It also means you might neglect other solutions that could solve the problem better.

By falling in love with the problem instead, an entrepreneur is able to pivot quickly from one solution to another, without becoming too attached to their original idea. They can set their egos aside and focus on what needs to be done

It’s a difficult psychological barrier to break down, but once you fall in love with your problem you’re much better positioned to solve it.

Image is from the pilot of our new startup. Our app isn’t nearly as ready as it should be, and it’s a little scary putting it into the field so soon. However, it means we can learn about how well it fixes the problem and then begin adjusting as necessary

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Uber Conversations

I met up with a friend of mine yesterday who had just gotten out of an Uber. The man he met had a Masters Degree in English Literature and taught English to grade 11 and 12 students. He was absolutely blown away by this exchange, which included a discussion on poetry and how to improve education in South Africa.

Today we took two different Ubers. In the first we spoke about football and the driver told us some incredible stories from his Uber driving experience (including how someone had once Ubered a piece of cake from Newlands to Camps Bay). The second driver told us a story about some ridiculous Joburg people he had in his car.

What I love about these conversations is that it brings together people, who otherwise would never have met, and can be the spark for a great conversation. For a brief moment a group of people from potentially different worlds are brought together.

I wonder how much influence these conversations have in changing people’s perspectives. And I wonder if we could ever emulate them through any other medium. Maybe it’s just one of the many ways that technology is starting to bring people together

Image is from the back seat of the second Uber 🙂

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Wall Running

I saw a video on YouTube a few months ago about trampoline wall tricks. My immediate reaction was “omg I really want to learn how to do that.”

Three weeks ago I joined a dodgeball team at Rush, a trampoline park. During one of the breaks I decided to try to wall run. I wasn’t even able to fall onto my back and bounce back up.

I spent the entire session trying to do this, and could hardly manage it without getting a whiplash. By the end of the session, I could just manage to bounce off my back and onto my feet.

Two weeks ago I started trying to maintain a rhythm while tapping my feet on the wall. I could manage a couple in a row at most

Last week I got to a point where I could maintain a perpetual bounce by pushing off the wall. It felt epic.

This week, I spent the entire time trying to bounce off my back, wall run and stand up on the ledge, which is about 3m high. After an excessive number of tries and an onset light headedness, I managed it.

What I love about this is the clear, measurable and visible learning process. From not being able to bounce on my back to being able to wall run it was less than four total hours in just under a month. The key to getting there was a conscious commitment and the will to push it a bit further every time.

I’m not quite at the level seen in that video. But I know I can get there if I put my mind to it 🙂

Image is of the BYD Dodgeball team. It’s the first time the team has entered the league, and we’re not doing too badly 🙂

 

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