We had a fabulous teacher in primary school. She was not a class or subject teacher of mine and did not know me. We always stared at this tall exotic, glamorous, raven haired beauty who swanned down the corridors like a model. She wore emerald green, royal blue, sunshine yellow. She was always impeccable, stylish and a vision to behold – her shoes always matched her skirt! But what she said, shaped the way I feel about me today.

One day, she walked up to me and said: “stand up tall, wear high heels if you want to … don’t be embarrassed because you’re tall, be proud to be tall”

Sometimes I’m still embarrassed when I’m too tall – when I stand out in a crowd, then I remember what Mrs Swart said : to stand up straight, and be proud of who I am.

I’ve become a full Stoic! Stoicism resonates deeply with me on so many levels.

“Stoicism is.. a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world. According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to eudaimonia (happiness, or blessedness) is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one’s mind to understand the world and to do one’s part in nature’s plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly”

As the great Epictetus once said: “Nothing great comes into being all at once, for that is not the case, even with a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me now “I want a fig”, I’ll reply, “That takes time”

That I am aloof and unapproachable. I am so empathic, and I love engaging with people and hearing their stories. But ever since I was young, people have told me that they always thought I would be a b*tch if they spoke with me or that I would be dismissive or cold. My introversion and shyness means that I will withdraw at times to recharge, and this is probably what people will pick up on and misconstrue as being aloof.

Any joke where one person is made fun of – be it aimed at women, minorities, based on culture, sexual orientation, race, accents, the way people learn look or pronounce words. I believe that these jokes make light of extremely serious scenarios. And that it is intended to make the subject feel small and as if they don’t have a voice. When a person makes a joke about these subjects, they are invalidating the group or individual it is aimed at. For instance, when people laugh at a joke where something happened to a woman and it turns out it happened “because she was out of the kitchen”, you will not see me laugh, and in fact, I call out people who do this type of thing. I don’t care if they like me or not, they are wrong.

I think in 50 years from now, people will not believe that important decisions were made (in 2020 in many places in the world) on the basis of:

a) Colour of your skin
b) Your sexuality
c) Your neurology
d) Whether you were raised rich or poor
e) What your English accent sounds like
f) Where in the world you were born
g) What your culture is
h) What your religion is
i) How wealthy or poor you or your parents are

It is already becoming taboo, and I hope it continues strongly so it does become taboo to discriminate on any level and in any way.

We foster animals when we can. Before the COVID-19 lockdown started in South Africa, we fetched 2 new dogs from our local shelter. Of course we fell in love with them and adopted them formally. This is Mysti. She loves bees and catching them. We call these her “spicy sky raisins”. Unfortunately, the bees sometimes sting her. She must have some badger in her because she doesn’t let it stop her. This pic is of her, a little sad because she has a swollen snout!

My Le Creuset Tagine!

Cooking is my passion and my gift and lately I have been experimenting with blending North African/ Moroccan and Indian cooking. The way the tagine is constructed and how it cooks, brings out the flavour of the food and the spices wonderfully – the smoke of Elachi, the tang of Mace, the caramelised flavour of the onion.

It’s the best thing I have ever invested in!

It must be Magneto from X-men. The poor man got given a pretty awful existence. If I were him, I’d also be bent on revenge. And anyway, it is not that he’s evil per se, it’s that he chooses to act with violence where Xavier chooses diplomacy. I can understand why Magneto lost patience, and reacted (a little too) strongly (at times).

Don’t name your business after yourself. It prohibits growth, and essentially it keeps your business plan incomplete, because it shows you do not have an exit plan for your business.

My above average organisational skills mean that I am an extremely methodical thinker. I can group together large batches of seemingly unconnected and chaotic data  and put it together cohesively, and then explain the process behind it and draw on-target  summarisations.

Oh yes, when I was a junior even into an intermediate, I did not have the skills and experience to adequately do my work on target and in time. I am certain it caused my senior some stress at times. But I worked harder, I educated myself, and I still strive to learn something new from each project and every person I work with.

It scares me that so many people are only strategising for right now. The idea of “I won’t be active in the industry in 20 years’ time so I don’t have to think about where it will be” is quite prevalent. We should be laying steps for those who will come after us. If we don’t grow our industry cohesively, it will struggle to survive the rise of automation. We have to prove the value of the human touch.

I’d love to see a proper career path for Recruiters, TA’s/ Headhunters and Sourcers. Standardised entry level skills, and, for those who wish to, real qualifications that include, sales, interviewing skills, coaching skills, technical skills. That are certified by institutions that have good standing as tertiary institutions even up to very senior level (like getting a master’s or a doctorate conferred). I’d love to see kids at career fairs saying “I love to interact with people and to help them. Recruiting sounds like just the job for me! How do I qualify and how do I enter this market? What will make me a successful recruiter?”

Support – personal, research, admin, organisational. This happens because I am naturally good at supporting others and have many years of experience in doing this. This is why I do research – it supports the other functions 😊

I teach people this in Sourcing training: There is no right, there is no wrong, no success, no failure. Only on-target and off target data. When you are on target, keep doing what you are doing. When you are off target – then you need to find the place where you went off the rails, and correct it so that you can become on target. That off target data is actually valuable, because you can deduce that that data does not have bearing right now.

Tim Glen. As a young entrepreneur, I am constantly impressed by his agility and creativity. The world needs to know him

Thank you to Jennifer van Riet for taking 20 Questions for The Brainfood Tribune. Get in touch with Jennifer if your team needs Sourcing Training