Nothing beats hard work – Connie Ferguson

Entrepreneurship must not expect anything to simply be handed to them.

This is the advice of South African-Motswana actress, film-maker, producer and businesswoman Connie Ferguson as guest speaker at the First National Bank-City of Windhoek Business Summit on Saturday.

“Do whatever it is you need to do to empower yourself, but nothing beats hard work,” she said.

Ferguson is best known for her lead role as Karabo Moroka in one of South Africa’s most popular soapies, ‘Generations’, from its start in 1993 until 2010.

Her motivational address aligns with president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s desire to see the revival of the creative sector in the country creating jobs for Namibians.

Relating the core values that guide her decisions and enable her success in the creative space, Ferguson said love, humanity, and hard work top her list. Adaptability is also crucial, she added.

Taking the audience through her life’s journey, Ferguson advised entrepreneurs to start where they are with what they have.

“I started my entrepreneurial journey by selling sweets at school to raise pocket money and help my inspirational mother, who had to take up two jobs to ensure we never went to bed hungry,” she said.

She said starting a business is not easy.

“You have to be absolutely passionate about what you do, so that even if it doesn’t work, you’re still having fun.”

Ferguson urged entrepreneurs to leverage their unique strengths to open doors. Her trump card was the fact that she could speak Setswana, which had landed her many acting roles and endorsements during her career.

“I believe everybody has to be like water. When they pour you into a cup, you take the shape of the cup . . . when they pour you into a stream, you flow with the stream. You need to be adaptable,” she said.

Ferguson said it is sometimes important to fail because it is a humbling experience.

“Leaving ‘Generations’ and thinking I could just go off and be a producer, I was humbled very quickly,” she said.

She highlighted the importance of businesses being tax compliant and practising good governance, no matter the size of the enterprise.

“One of the hardest but most important, most invaluable lessons I’ve learnt as a business person is not to look successful from the outside when your books are not in order, because that can literally set you back three houses.

“In terms of governance, whether you’re an entrepreneur, small business or a medium business, governance is governance,” she said.

Ferguson said there is nothing wrong with going back to the drawing board if things do not work out as planned.

“We did that many times when some of our projects did not work out,” she said, advising entrepreneurs to scrutinise the small print in business contracts.

“A lot of the work producers do is commissioned. You get money from somebody to produce a show.

Whoever gives you money, it doesn’t matter that you came up with the idea, you spent sleepless nights writing scripts . . . that intellectual property belongs to them because they put the money into the show.

“It has been commissioned and you get your 8% or whatever and you’re done,” she said.

Martin Nankela, the organiser of the annual business summit, said the event has grown from about 30 attendees five years ago to a full house this year, as well as exhibition stalls for budding businesses.

“We were limited by the size of the venue as many more people were phoning to be taken in,” he said.
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na

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