When I look back on my past, I think of my grandfather, Westerfield Skumbuzo M’Cwabeni. He was a soft-spoken man who served as the Headmaster of a boys' school. He was multilingual and possessed a remarkable skill for writing. This skill made him a political enemy of the state at the onset of Apartheid.
As a father, a teacher, and an African, what pained him most under Apartheid was Bantu education. Bantu education perpetuated the belief that blacks were inferior and suited only for menial work in the countryside or servitude in the city. After many pleas, discussions, and arguments with my grandmother, they decided to move their family to Nigeria to provide a better upbringing and education for their children.
My father became a doctor in Rhodesia, which later became Zimbabwe. My uncle became an engineer, another uncle a veterinarian, and my aunt earned a PhD in Library Science. Another aunt, Yvonne, became a nurse. Through her marriage, she was granted the title of Lady by the Royal Family of Spain and was presented to Queen Elizabeth.
Through my own family, I learned very early in life that when given lemons, you can make lemonade.
Fast forward to 2020. It was a year marked by COVID-19, the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, volatile stock markets, and pointless debates over the necessity of diversity and female quotas, among other things. On June 16th, 2020, to be precise, I faced a gap worth 1.9 billion EUR of lemons, and things haven't been the same ever since.
At that time, I was a Non-Executive Director (NED) member of the Supervisory Board of Wirecard AG. On June 16th, 2020, a 1.9 billion EUR hole was discovered in the company balance sheet, leading to one of the largest corporate scandals in Europe, one that unfolded like a bizarre spy thriller.
My life has been irrevocably changed since then. It has been a period of resilience, regrowth, and rebuilding — a lot of "Re..." and making of my own lemonade.
Post 2020, I made the shift from corporate, to finally, something that I've always wanted to do - entrepreneurship. I have always looked at entrepreneurship like a good game of snakes and ladders. In snakes and ladders, there's all types of highs - the impact you could have, the freedom you have, the personal growth; the team that you grow, develop and the team spirit.
Amongst the highs, there are also some painful lows - the financial ups and downs, emotional roller coasters; and tough choices that you have to make on a daily basis. It's a path that I have to say, has tested my limits and has shaped me into a more resilient and adaptive leader. I founded Fintech X alongside 2 founders. We were VC backed in the heyday of 2021 and granted an award by Google. Now, I'm pursuing the next phase of my career in helping to support other founders and businesses to scope, scale and grow.
