BACKSTORY: Darren Isaacs, founder and CEO of Makosi

What’s your top tip for doing a deal? 

If you do a deal, whether it’s working with a client, onboarding a new employee or doing a transaction in private equity, just ensure that it doesn’t make you something that you aren’t. 

What was your first job? 

Doing accounts receivable collection for my dad’s company. I would sit during the holidays, calling up clients to go and collect money. During college I had some side ventures as well that I didn’t tell anybody about — like my bonsai nursery. I used to collect plant stock, sculpt them and prune them into bonsai. The markups and margins on bonsai are out of control. 

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

It was R8,000 and I didn’t spend it — it’s a cheque that I had framed.

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

Do good things for people. And I think that the universe has a strange way of keeping track of all the good things that you do. And never to say “no” to a conversation.

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

South Africa lets itself down by not being hard on corruption and not taking action, and by having politics direct how we behave and how we hold ourselves accountable.

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

I love building guitars. 

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

If your confidence gets hit then it affects so many things in your life. If you wake up in the morning and you want to hustle and you want to get out there and kick some arse, but you have self-doubt — even if it’s temporary — then you’re not going to be able to get on that horse. So, I’m not answering the question directly but something I’m very firm on is I don’t beat myself up about mistakes I may have made.

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

I took a six-month trip on a motorcycle with a few good friends and travelled around Africa. I kept a journal and I figured myself out throughout that journey. You develop a huge amount of self-confidence. So I think that’s probably the best investment that anyone could make: into themselves and their capabilities. 

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

The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield about the Spartan army at the battle of Thermopylae. There are two aspects of the book that I found fascinating: the leadership of the king of the Spartans, Leonidas, and teamwork. It’s a fascinating idea that the Spartan shield was not to protect yourself, but the man next to you. 

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

I would spend time with Wayne Duvenage, the CEO of Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse. He is so practical, so outspoken.