BACKSTORY: Piotrans CEO Mochele Noge

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

Be in control of the time-frame.

What was your first job?

Accountant: salaries at the Lethabong metropolitan local council, now the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality.

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

I was doing my articles and earned R1,600 as a trainee accountant, I bought a pair of formal, black, lace-up, Cole Haan shoes.

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

Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. Every so often I marvel at all the unimaginable cross-roads that my life ends up placing me at.

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

Our education system. Nelson Mandela said: "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

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

I am fascinated by the comings and goings at international airports. I could sit there for hours, curiously enchanted by people’s reasons for travel.

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

We are all tougher than we think we are. My own struggles repeatedly taught me this. Also, you do not always get what you want or wish for.

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

Farming. Crime does not pay, neither does farming! All I had to show was phenomenal ROE (return on ego).

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

Without a doubt marrying my wife and having our beautiful children. "Family maketh the man." In terms of luck I was extremely fortunate to have met her and successfully courted her at university, and survived a trans-Atlantic relationship in our very early days.

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

Bring back the technical training colleges and all initiatives for youth employment and entrepreneurship.