Reactions to Dr Ruben Richards Lecture

Dr Richard Ruben

Mark Dzoro writes: Ruben Richards seems an all round person. This successful entrepreneur emphasised the significance of entrepreneurship and how the youth of today can engage as well as enhance their business ideas in order to be successful. Dr Ruben Richards defines entrepreneurship as the ability to “monetise creativity”. He joked, albeit with a hint of serious, that entrepreneurship could be visualised as “having sex with a porcupine.” This signifies that entrepreneurship can be both exciting and challenging (imagine wading through the spines and quills, with all the pricks).

The prickly part of the entrepreneurial life is that it presents many challenges and is highly beneficial for South Africa growth. Thus entrepreneurs are encouraged to tread the triple bottom entrepreneurship journey with caution. The triple bottom simply means social, economic, and political factors in which the business and entrepreneur operate in.

In terms of economic factors that are affecting youth entrepreneurship where the motivational speaker was encouraging students to monetise creativity, it is sad to note that the youth of today are instead monetising grants. The truth of the matter is the grants they receive be it educational loans or social grants, many a times the money is not used for its intended purpose. Dr Ruben Richards iterated that for an entrepreneur to be a success he should make use of the formula P equals E/W: Prosperity, E- Entrepreneur, W- Workers

The writer however views entrepreneurship as the new creation of wealth and value of a product or service. Entrepreneurship is a profession which, like any other profession, has four main elements: task; tools; principles; and responsibilities. It is not personal characters which make entrepreneurs effective as in other professions. It is what they do and their skill. It is the positioning of the entrepreneur and the viability of the idea that the entrepreneur has.

Morongoa Dihangwane writes: Dr Reuben Richards, South African motivational speaker, educationist and entrepreneur has presented and inspired us on the fascinating, interesting and energizing topic about entrepreneurship. He has a passion and the ambition to maximize potential in other people’s lives. He talked about South African entrepreneurship in a way in which we could all relate to, by saying that “talking about entrepreneurship in South Africa, is like talking about the sex life of a Porcupine”. In that sense he was trying to show us the fact that South Africa has too many people with too little to lose and that the country has a new apartheid, which is the difference between those who have jobs (employed) and those who don’t have jobs (unemployed).

He has shown us that South Africa has the greatest gap between the poor and the rich in the entire world amongst all the countries. He mentioned that the country moves from poverty to wealth through a process called industrial development. He defines industrial development as “making things that people are prepared to buy”,  because when you make things that people are willing to pay for, then you can make money/profit. He said that South African economy was based on the export of raw materials because the country has an abundance of valuable minerals namely, gold, silver, platinum, oil, coal and gas.

Dr Reuben Richards also showed us that South Africa is most probably the 6^th most wealthy country in the world ranking in terms of natural resources. The country has the 2^nd largest gold mine in the entire world.      

In conclusion, I would say that the presentation was really fascinating and energizing. I feel much more motivated and inspired. I’ve realized that everything in life is possible, especially for me as a young black South African woman. I just have to work hard towards pursuing my goals. I’ve also realized that it is possible for me to become one of the most famous and richest South African female entrepreneurs.