Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February 2014 | Page 51

STRATEGIES

BY SCOTT PICKEN

Become A Property Entrepreneur
The two biggest lessons you will learn

corporate mentality. They bought a fleet of cars
and branded them, they even had coffee mugs
branded, as this is what you do in the corporate
world. But when you are an entrepreneur you
are much more nimble and you do things on a
shoe string until they work.
I decided then and there I was not going to
go and work in a corporate job and then risk
everything later in life. I truly believe, being
an entrepreneur is a learnt skill and the only
way to learn is to get started, as you are going
to learn the same lessons if you are 20 or 50,
no matter what your corporate experience or
education. I decided I was going to start as
soon as possible, long before I had any real
commitments and if I failed I could sleep on a
friend’s couch. I was going to master business
from as young as possible and control my
destiny, just as my dad had dreamed of doing.
On the 1st of August 2005, while I was in
London, I got a call from my mother to say
my father had passed away at the age of 59.
When we got his affairs in order we found
out the pension payout to my mother was
R480 000. Remember in 1995 he was paid out
R500 000 and so in 10 years the wonderful
experts on the stock market, with all their fees,
had managed to not only not grow the wealth,
but also actually reduce the capital amount.

T

his article is an excerpt from my
novel Property Going Global. I chose
to include a young picture of my dad,
one when he has so much promise. I have
told you about how my father always wanted
to be a farmer and work for himself. He was
denied this by the politics in Zimbabwe. He
came to South Africa and at the age of 27
trained to be an accountant so that he could
get a corporate job and provide the best for
his family. He rose through the ranks and was
eventually Financial Director of Rainbow
Chickens. However he always yearned to
run his own business and was always trying
things on the side. When I was 17, he decided
he was ready to take the risk . He took
early retirement and got paid a pension of
R500 000, something he had worked for over
www.reimag.co.za

22 years. As most people di