BACKSTORY: Ross Volk, MD of MSC Cruises

What’s your one top tip for doing a deal? 

Assess both sides of the equation and understand what’s important for you, and what’s important for the other party. This allows you to speak to negotiation points that are not important to either side; in that way you can reach a compromise.

What was your first job? 

Articled clerk at KPMG.

How much was your first pay cheque, and how did you spend it? 

Probably about R3,500. It was enough to cover rent and my car — but I also had a large number of fines to pay, for using English words in an Afrikaans auditing environment.

What is the one thing you wish somebody had told you when you were starting out?

Don’t sweat the small stuff — focus on the big-ticket issues.

If you could fix only one thing in South Africa, what would it be? 

The disparity between rich and poor, and the lack of education. It’s a travesty that we are not investing more in our people.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that people don’t know? 

I like reading nonfiction, especially books on leadership.

What’s the worst investment mistake you’ve made? 

Any motor vehicle I have ever bought in my entire life.

What’s the best investment you’ve ever made? And how much of it was due to luck? 

I’ve bought and sold things that have made or lost money, but the one investment that has sustained me throughout my life, and made everything possible, is my education.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently and why did you like it? 

John C Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I keep on coming back to it every time I have a concern about some aspect of leadership and how to apply it in day-to-day life. I’ve also profited from Scott McBain’s The Mastership Game, which is all about the power that comes with leadership, and how to use it properly.

What is the hardest life lesson you’ve learnt so far? 

Life’s not fair, and nobody is going to look out for you — if you don’t look out for yourself.

What phrase or bit of jargon irks you most? 

“It will only take a second.” Because it never does.

What is something you would go back and tell your younger self that would impress them? 

Time accumulates experience and that accumulation yields who you are and what people see. So don’t worry about it — it will happen naturally.

If you were President Cyril Ramaphosa, what would you change, or do, tomorrow? 

I would put people who are experts in charge of each of the ministries. For example, Thuli Madonsela would be my top choice for minister of justice & correctional services, while somebody who has excelled in business should be in trade, industry & competition, and somebody with an engineering background should be in water & sanitation. We need to do things better to uplift society.