Your Happy Hour - Episode 16: Petrol in the Tank

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Happy Friday everyone! Tune in to episode 16 and let’s chat about: Petrol in the Tank.In this episode we are joined by Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of Playnicely.co, Simon Hurry, who is on a mission to unlock the true potential of individuals, teams and companies by understanding our innate strengths and how to use these to build synergies.We unpack topics like: money and relationships, money as a tool for change, playing to your strengths to build success, the balancing act of making and spending, predictions on the impact of AI and understanding how to live your passion through the cultivation of your net-worth and net-work.We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters01:03 Welcome to Simon Hurry!03:45 Money: A tool for change08:09 The personality for making money10:09 Best thing you’ve spent money on…11:29 Strengths to Success13:35 The Balancing Act: Making and Spending20:04 Hello AI: Where to from here?32:19 Play Nicely: What can we encounter when we create together?34:52 Living your passion: What does this really look like?38:54 10 years ago and one year from now…42:04 Enhance your NetWorth & NetWork47:20 Best professional advice: The character of entrepreneurship49:10 Gems of the Week!54:22 Connect with Simon! 55:55 Final thoughts and Farewell!

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. you tuned into your happy hour friday feels we're celebrating all you working professionals out there doing your crazy craft embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically we are host sarah and nicole and we're living and working around the world holding space for you and keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. Follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we chatted with Ruki Roti Balogun, who walked us through how she maps her money and deploys her resources in order to live a full and successful life. And this week, we're joined by entrepreneur, Mr. Simon Harry,

who is the founder and chief inspiration officer of PlayNice.co, who focuses on building confident teams, people, and connections so that companies can unlock their synergies and maximize talent and collaboration opportunities. A very big welcome to you, Simon. It is so great to have you on here with us today. Thanks, Nicole. Thanks, Sash. It's great to be here. And the topic is even more interesting for me. So I look forward to seeing what we can share today. Yeah, we love that you're here. And, you know, just for a bit of a backstory, Simon and I met

many years, many moons ago now and many lifetimes and i was a student at the university of cape town and they advertised i was studying business science finance and they advertised this thing of simon coming to talk to us about strengths the strength finder and this sound really intriguing so i actually had a profile drawn for my strength finder i can't find the profile but i kind of vaguely remember what it says but yeah that was really an interesting experience and maybe tell us a little bit more about like that's what where it all started and what you're doing now? Well, yeah, I think that as we were chatting that that was a very intriguing part of my life because it was the beginning stage of, I would say, chapter three of my life. I've had a couple of chapters since then as well. As I say to people, you've got to

write your own book, so you've got to make it as interesting as possible. No one wants to know how the plot's going to end. So I think definitely in terms of my life is going to be a page turner because you'll never know what I'm up to next. But what had happened then is I just left education, got quite disillusioned with it, to be quite honest, and had come across this assessment, CliftonStrengths, and I'd just done it myself and it was an epiphany, and I got very excited, and being a closet evangelist felt that I needed to take it to market and share it with as many people as possible.

So I think you are the guinea pigs. If I look at what I know now compared to what I know then, I hope I made sense, and I think I relied completely on the basic content that was available. But it's an incredibly impactful tool and still forms the core of what I do today and who I am as a person. I think it's quite remarkable in terms of just understanding who we are as individuals and what drives us and can be correlated to our money personality as well. So's an interesting one yeah yeah and when we

chatted a bit before this you know we were i was asking you know like how do you feel about money and you were saying you think quite differently about money you know and that it's almost like petrol in the tank so maybe talk to us a little bit back why is this important to you what does that mean well well if i think if i told my best mate that i was on a on a on a chat show talking about money he'd think what is it a comedy show because basically um if you if you look at how i was raised uh in terms of my era um i think money uh is synonymous with investment and so certainly sort of the classic approach to money is judicious financial management and investment. So my best mate, that's what he's done. He's built his portfolio,

he's invested his cash, and he's built it slowly but surely. That's not been my process. So yeah, I have a completely different attitude towards money. And we can, you we can share more as we discuss it. But I think that I've always seen money as a tool. That's all I've seen it. I don't, as a personality type, I can understand the investment process, but I'd rather get money working for me. And maybe we can explore a bit about what that looks like. But for me, money must be put to use i don't understand the concept of saving and i don't understand the concept of investment i think it's a it's a tool for change i really love that and we had rookie on last week who also said something similar like money will always find a way to be spent you know it's just about me yes no 100 it seems to find a way when i wasn't looking either so

so uh yeah we we tend to have a traumatic relationship yeah you mentioned something before which we were kind of teasing our audience with last week maybe we can get into that a little later or you can go ahead i don don't mind. I'm brave. I'm prepared. Yeah. You had said to us that your relationship with money is a bit like your relationship with women. We don't really know what that means. So can you unpack that a little bit? Yeah. I think it's a question of just when you think you've worked it out, you haven't. of just when you think you've worked it out, you haven't. So it's just when you think you've cracked it and you've invested in it and you've done it right, you could lose it. I mean, on a

more serious note, it's quite interesting. There are swings and roundabouts in terms of everything we do. So if I look at my best mate who's invested his cash, you could see it in the context of a relationship. You can invest in one particular relationship for a long period of time, but what guarantees do you have that it's going to last? What guarantees do you have that an event doesn't take place and you have to start again? If we look at recession, if we look at COVID, if we look at a number of different things, a lot of individuals lost everything based on a conservative approach.

And I've seen individuals in their relationships invest a lot in a relationship only to have it implode after 25, 30 years, and they've invested a significant amount of time. And then you sort of take sort of my approach, which is don't invest. So it's like, you know, get some, lose some. So there's good seasons and there's bad seasons, and then there's good seasons and then there are bad seasons. In which case you sort of spread your risk that way. And sometimes it's really great, sometimes it's really bad. So strangely enough, I see strong parallels

between money and relationships. And I have to ask the question again, you've got to understand what's important to you, to be quite honest, but you've also got to be quite aware of what's happening around you and the simple reality of how things work. So bringing it back to money and relationships, I think they're basic principles that you have to understand. But at the heart of it, for money that is, I think it's about what you can do with it. I really do. I think I'm a big proponent on money as a tool to empower, as opposed to something that just builds wealth for the sake of it. There's a lot of wealth that is just sitting, growing more wealth, and it could change the

world tomorrow if it was accessed. So is that a school of thought that you were brought up with, or is that something you've kind of developed on your own over the years? No, I think it's personality. I think it's very much, I would say that it's not that I'm a contrarian by nature. I would say that I just challenge status quo if it doesn't make sense to me. So what is interesting is that growing up, I had a very conservative view on money. My parents were teachers. I would say that we were well off I could go to a private school so let me just say in the South African context we were well off but we certainly I was not aware that we had surplus if that makes sense so my dad worked really really hard he was an author so he did very well he had kept a lucrative market so so his his royalties were good and we lived a good life and I could go to a

private school and I could get the best education. But that was it. So there was a cap. There was very little chance of growing more money. So from an entrepreneurial perspective of how money works and how you can grow it, that was never taught. My cousins were successful business people and my uncle, who was my role model in many ways, had grown his own quantity surveying firm and actually became a very dominant developer in some of the big prominent hotels in the South African landscape. So he did actually extremely well for himself. And my other uncle was an architect who built his own business. So they were businessmen, if they'd sense,

but I was never exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship and the ability to generate your own wealth in any way you want to. So it was personality. And it wasn't until I started my journey around the time I met Nicole, that I started meeting entrepreneurs to understand how it really works. And that is really what's gripped me and gained a lot of interest in it. So you said money is meant to be spent. So what's the best thing you've spent money on? Actually, when I look back at it, it sounds really weird. And this is, I think, a statement in itself.

The best thing I ever bought was that book, Now Discover Your Strengths, to be honest. And it didn't cost much. And yet I bought it and it changed my life. And so for me, if I go back to what I've said about money, Zaz, it's not how much, it's what you spend it on. It's a question of how you use it and what you use it on. I think a lot of people are fixated by how much, but to be honest, that tends to be sort of a comparison contest, which is really how much do you have versus how much I have, which I don't get and I don't fully understand because the reality is I would much rather say

how have you used the money. So impact for me is far more important. how you use the money. So impact for me is far more important. So it sounds strange that 250 Rand was the best spend of 250 Rand I've ever done, but it changed my life. Yeah, yeah, it is amazing. And what a journey that started. I mean, like you say, it's like…

Well, exactly, Nicole. Yeah, yeah, it's the value of it. I mean, we were talking a few episodes back about value transfer and money just being a sense of your value. But I'm quite curious, you know, you've done the Strength Finder, you bought that book, you started that journey. What was your profile? Like, what were your strengths that came out of that, that you've now kind of deployed in your journey? that you've now kind of deployed in your journey? Well, I think it certainly helped me as I started working with a relationship with money and with others, because the reality is that I would say that I am very much a born entrepreneur in the context of my intrinsic mindset is if you don't have something, you create it. So if you don't have money, you make it. But I also have a mindset that what you make, you create it. So if you don't have money, you make it. But I also have

a mindset that what you make, you spend. The challenge though, is getting the balance right to spend it on the right things, because I'm also a lifestyle person. So the challenge that I've got is that as a personality, I want to enjoy what I've created. And that's the finer things in life at times so you know uh let me give you a simple example uh experiences are very important to me so as as a personality i think experiences can be profound i think that they can change lives i think um you know the most amazing dinner in the right setting where people are not conscious of a bowl at the end of the dinner could could build relationships transform lives you could set up conversations which could last for for years think of another thing you know safari watching

a sunset being able to have a conversation with the friends and even strangers, what that could bring. So I'm a very big believer in the power of creating moments and money does that. So the sort of trifecta between kind of living and wanting to enjoy my money, the desire to make it and the desire to spend it has been in place. to make it and the desire to spend it has been in place, the question is getting the balance right, you know, around kind of the making and the spending. So that's the fun part. That's where you've got to get the balance right.

And how do you get the balance right? We all want to know. Yeah, it's a good question. Yeah. So I've been on my entrepreneurial journey, I'd say for 15 years, or let me say I've been self-employed for 15 years. And I think that's what people don't appreciate about being self-employed is that when you're self-employed, the month is very short, very short. And suddenly it's the end of the month and you hate public holidays because you can't earn in that particular time. And the short month means that you have to lose money very, very quickly on your bills. If you salaried, it's a long month because you're waiting to get the cash that you know you're going to get

regardless of how you perform. And I think that what I've learned along that entrepreneurial journey is the art of how to make money. So there's two components for me. There's how you make it and how you spend it. And both are arts in themselves. And strangely enough, it's getting better now with the sort of entrepreneurial age, but there wasn't a huge amount of information out there to help you understand how to make money and how to spend it, to be quite honest. There are very few books on how to spend money. There's a hell of a lot of books about how to save and how to invest and how to grow money. about how to save and how to invest and how to grow money.

You know, a lot of the guys enjoy the gaming of money, like playing like Bitcoin, you know, hedging. That's a game, to be honest. If you look at those personalities, it's not about the money, it's the game that they're playing. I'm actually talking about money itself as an object, as something that you want to gain. So I think that if I answered your question of how do you make it, it goes back to basic entrepreneurial principles. And the best is to give you an example. So I don't want to put you guys on the spot, but let's put it in dollars, shall we? So let's say you want to make $10,000.

And I say, do you want to make $10,000? And you go, that'd be nice. So I'd ask you basically, Nicole, how would you make $10,000? Well, if I'm thinking of me as a singer-songwriter, I would make, produce a song. I put it out there and then I would have to practice and then tour and perform. And hopefully I sell tickets and make the $10,000 over the course of time.

Well, that's a beautiful, spoken like a true artist. That's really great. Not as an entrepreneur, but as an artist. Not as an entrepreneur, not as an artist. Sash, could I perhaps put you on the spot as well and ask you, how would you go about making $10,000? I would say through consulting, we charge $10,000 a month for clients. So I would need to get one client on retainer and probably takes me about, I don't know, 20 to 30 conversations before I get one client on retainer. So I'd have to book at least 30 conversations in order to get to $10,000. Okay.

Now you're bringing in how long it takes to generate that money, how long it generates to take that money. But what you've done quite nicely is you've articulated a method to generate that money. But if we under sort of examine both your answers, essentially what we're looking at, and this is what I learned as an entrepreneur, is something called need. And the reality is that how money works is it's a transaction. I want that and we're going to trade. So the idea basically is we used to do trades, but now we just, we use money instead of the trade. So we go, I want that. Let me give you

X amount. How much do you want for that? And I'll trade you that item for the cash that I've got. How you generate cash is the same trade. I can solve a problem for you and you are going to pay me to solve your problem. So the origin of money, believe it or not, is from a transactional perspective in terms of change, is problem solving. Here's the key thing. The problem you solve has a price point to it. And how much you want to make depends on the price point and the problem. So another way of looking at the $10,000 is you've got to find 10,000 people who will each give you $1. If you can find 10,000 people who will each give you $1, you can make 10,000. Now you go, how are you going to do

that? Well, it's simple. It's called airtime. It's called data. And that's basically how the telecoms make as much money as they do, because basically they're charging a minuscule amount to millions and millions of people who are using more and more, and it just adds up and they get incredibly wealthy as a result of that process. So essentially what I'm basically saying and learned along the entrepreneur journey is the equation is find a problem to solve that people are prepared to pay you cash for and get the time right because if you get the time wrong you don't get the cash because it takes you 30 conversations and 30 conversations takes you six months, but you actually want the $10,000 per month. So now it's pressure point and it's a bit of a chaos. So making money is an art. That's what I say. And getting that equation

right is notoriously difficult. Once you start getting it right, it goes exponential until the market changes. And when the market changes, that need suddenly changes. And this is why people are terrified by AI, because suddenly people could make a lot of money solving a problem that AI is basically replacing. So suddenly people are scared of losing their value and their potential earning capacity simply because AI is replacing that. But to cut a long story short, how you make money is you've got to find a need. You've got to find how many people have that need. And the question is, why would they come to you? That's the basic entrepreneurial sort of method. I hope that answers the question, Nicole.

method. I hope that answers the question, Nicole. Yeah, it does. And I kind of want to tag on with what you said now about, you know, the fear that people have around AI. I find this such an interesting, like a segue into what we, you know, from what we said, because you think of Kodak, for example, you know, Kodak really had all the opportunity to pivot at the time that they could, but they didn't. And then technology came and, you know, I mean, these days Kodak is producing vaccines, which is a whole different kettle of fish. But anyway, exactly. There's a need. And so, I feel like as things change, as AI comes in, people are, we were talking about it the other day, actually, like the mundane stuff, the stuff that can easily be done by AI, you know, maybe it's we give AI that. What is left, though, is really human. It's very much what comes from within you.

new um do you feel do you see when you work with clients and companies like that people are trying to find more what are their true strengths what are the things that they're really good at from inside that is not necessarily like that's those are computerized automated things that ai could do it's a great question and probably a podcast in itself but the way I'd answer it is that I think as human beings, we've got quite lazy around what we do and how we do it. Being employed, believe it or not, creates a level of mediocrity, ironically, because it gives you a lot of security. So we will do jobs and we will even do menial things, but it's not a threat. You know, you're going to get the same cash.

It might not be a lot and you can bitch and moan about everybody about how little it is, but there's security in that particular process. If AI removes all the menial jobs, if AI removes the menial intelligence, if AI removes where we've been lazy, there is only one option but to step up and define one's uniqueness in quite a profound way and to market your uniqueness as a cutting

edge in itself, which is a huge mind-boggling challenge to think about. So in many ways, mind-boggling challenge to think about it. So in many ways, what I do see is the entrepreneurial age hasn't even just begun, but what's going to be doing, how it's going to manifest is in the individual expression of self at a mastered level to create value in a very bespoke context. So it sounds really weird, but how I see money going is the sort of death of the monopoly and a fragmentation basically into smaller tribes that solve what the monopoly solved, all contracting their services at an equitable rate to live the life that they want to live collectively. So I'm seeing that if I look at both my daughters, my eldest now is 29 and my youngest is 27. My eldest was raised with the entrepreneurial thinking of how to make money.

And she has, since she was 24, started her own business. And she's learned through her skill to build a lifestyle and rooted around friendships that pays her bills. And so she doesn't want a lot of money necessarily. So she lives a very good life. She can raise her daughter and she can enjoy her work. And she works with people she loves and they are and she employs a younger sister and so what is fascinating in that process is that if you look at her clan which is five or six people she's created work for three or four others they all built around their strengths collectively they add value her lifestyle is amazing she lives from and works remotely and she can dictate her own hours. So in many ways, for me,

she epitomizes where the world's going and she contracts her skill set up the channel. And so what is taking place now is that what I'm seeing with her age group and younger is the desire to create creative clans which solve problems that dictate their own working conditions, their own salaries, their own lifestyles. And people are going, what is wealth? Define wealth. Is it about a lot of money? Is it about security? Or is it about lifestyle and people and loving what you do and being able to pay the bills and enjoy great moments because she's 29 and as far as I'm concerned she's living the dream but she has to work hard because the

reality is you're only one client away from poverty you know um which is a good tension to have it keeps you sharp and it makes you good so that's that's how I see it evolving. I think it's also a question about scalability, right? AI allows you to scale in the way that one human person for certain tasks cannot, right? So as a human, maybe you're able to clean, I don't know, five bathrooms an hour. As a robot, maybe you're able to clean 20. In no scenario is a human going to be able to do 20. So there's just, they don't get sick. You know, they don't have any other obligations to other humans.

And Nicole and I have kind of discussed it a little bit too. And I see some people actually doing a good job of how do you incorporate it into your work, in your daily work? Is there a way? Is there a position? So let's say you do clean toilets, right, rather than getting replaced by a robot. Is there something AI can do to book more appointments for you 24-7 and you actually employ a robot to do it? So now you know what to do. You set it.

You have it on automation. Like it's just a movement of skill set like you're talking about. You need to evolve in order to not die, right? That's kind of humanity in a nutshell. And so I think for AI, it's very interesting to see how it interacts with human everyday tasks that we have. And a lot of people are concerned about their jobs, but also like all the things you do in your personal time. Like they have motion where you can dump all of the tasks that you have to do for the week. And AI will use it to tell you when to strategically do it at the best time.

So you save the most amount of time. It is very interesting, like what you're talking about, Nicole, like what is left after that, and then trying to figure out how to incorporate it, right, to make it easier for your life, while also securing your livelihood, right? Does this make sense in five to 10 years? So I think, I think what people forget about AI is all it is is computational learning. That's basically what it is. So junk in, junk out. And I think this is Elon Musk's huge concern and what he's picking up with AI at the moment is if you program it with racist tendencies, it will become racist because junk in, junk out. All AI basically is going to do is it's going to take information and it's going to learn from

what it's got to pick up patterns and it's going to apply those patterns into specific circumstances. So it's just computational speed like we've never seen before and the ability to gain knowledge based on its previous knowledge. So that's all it's doing. So normally with computers, you know, you put in one, you'd get one out. Now you're putting one, one, one, it's understanding the patterns between the ones and it's creating new ones. Okay. So it's computational learning. Those can then allow robots to function because of the speed of computational, the computational speed that's required to run a robot. But in the context for us as human beings, what it's going to do is it's going to take the menial stuff and make it absolute.

Now, what is going to be left is humanity. What's going to be left is human interaction. What's going to be left is relationship. What's going to be left is almost going back to sitting under the tree, as we used to do many years ago, and sharing life and sharing experiences and doing what we need to. I think that given what I know about the personalities of the scientists, if you look at the personalities of scientists, they live in an alternative universe intellectually. They don't necessarily like human beings, to be quite honest. So from their own subjective experience,

being alone is quite a remarkable place to be, where they can be lost in their heads creating and inventing. But for the rest of humanity, which represents at least 85 to 90% of the universe, we are relational, and we want to connect, and we want to talk, and we want to share, and we want warm feedback. We want an individual saying, Simon, thank you, and I'm going to give you a hug. Now, people might sit there and basically say,

well, we'll get the AI robots to do that for you, and we'll even program, given personality theory, we'll be able to program a person that looks like your significant other who dumped you, and we will get that robot to behave like your significant other so you can have your relationship with that individual and they will learn from that particular process now i saw that yeah no no no listen it's coming it's coming and it's quite scary and basically with the latest techniques you're probably able to have sex with it as well so you know and then it'll be self-cleaning.

So it's like you're looking at this entire process and you're going, you know, who's going to complain about that? You've got a robot who doesn't give you any shit. They're predictable. They have no moods. And so you're going, AI sounds good. But I think this is where we lose our humanity, to be honest. And humanity is in our brokenness. Humanity is in our rawness.

Humanity is in our stupidity and our, I don't know, our base. We're not clever sometimes. We get some stuff wrong. We make mistakes. It's what connects to us. I think that the pursuit of perfection, the pursuit of ease, the pursuit of comfort, the pursuit of predictability, and this is what Elon Musk is warning us is going to destroy the very fabric of us as a society. And I agree with him. I agree with him. But I think we've got to fight back for humanity and connection. And that's why in many ways, the counterculture for me will be groups of individuals who clan together to trade on skills, punch above their weight, live the lifestyle with all the other

menial tasks being done, to be quite honest. So it gives us time to sit under the tree and connect and talk and sing and celebrate what makes us human in life while the robot cleans the house, sorts the toilet out, and does everything else. I mean, the reality is, why have we reduced humanity to those functional jobs anyway? I mean, they have to be done. So get a robot to do them. But I think that if I answered your question simply, it would be what I think Elon's fighting for is humanity, that we've got to hold on to the rawness and the basic stupidity

of who we are as a species, and that's what connects us. And so we've got to be very careful. We don't lose that. And I guess to keep playing nicely with each other, right, just to use your catchphrase. Well, that's my opportunity. So, I mean, if I look at niche and if I practice what I preach, I see the ability to work together and to recover our humanity

as a critical need and, in many ways, a counter-revolutionary movement against AI in terms of if I can help individuals reclaim their humanity and their warm-blooded relationship and understand how to work with people, the sterility and predictability of AI will not be able to compete with the warmth of strong relationships and what we can encounter when we create together. So, you know, I have no doubt that AI could write a song better than you could. I've got no doubt that it could pack out a hit single. In many ways, I think that Taylor Swift is doing exactly this. And, you know, if she admitted to it that I'm not sure she writes much of her stuff anymore, I think she just uses very clever ways of understanding exactly what a hit song looks like, feels like, and who's going to enjoy it.

And then just basically adds her vocals to that process and then just pumps the cash. So, you know, it's proven that hit songs have a certain rhythm. They have a certain catchiness. They have a certain beat, you know, you know what I mean? So, so create, you know, if I say to you, Nicole, if you want to hit single, just do the studies, get the right lyrics, launch it at the right time so that it creates associations for individuals, which Taylor's very good in terms of her lyrics, and it will be a hit song. Give it to the right individual and it will go big and then you'll sit there and say but what about my individuality uh what about my expression and

i think that this is exactly the humanity we're talking about and that we enjoy but the reality is going back to the money thing is at the base concern is how do I earn cash? You know, philosophy is great, but if I can't pay the bills at the end of the month, what do I do? So, you know, individuality is one thing, poverty is another thing. So, you know, you can create your hit songs, but if AI shows you how to create a hit song, I promise you, you're going to be tempted because money talks. And that's why I think the relationship we have with money is critical because it dictates a significant amount of our decisions. Do you believe people can make money and follow their passion? Oh, yes.

Well, I mean, again, I'm a living example of that. I would say both my daughters are. But I think let's qualify living your passion. People seem to have an illusion that living your passion means you wake up in this morning like a Geron Zan C advert. And maybe I'm giving my age where you've taken these vitamins that have been pumped through your body during the night and you've woken up going, I cannot wait to embrace the day and live my dream. Because that's just not how it works. It's hard. It's hard for anybody. But as I was listening to somebody say, and it's been said a couple of times, you've got to choose your heart. So the myth that following your passion is easy, no, it's hard. But it's your passion which allows you to go further, longer,

harder than you would if you didn't own it. So the only difference about passion is I'm prepared to pay a higher price for the hard, if that makes sense. But it's, S's, it's brutal. No, following your passion is brutal. There's very little forgiveness. Nicole will tell you since she had a weak moment and said, I'm going to leave corporate and the security of that particular process.

And I'm going to live my dream and liberate my soul. And when it comes to the end of the month, you're going, my God, what am I doing? And why have I done this? And you can call yourself a gypsy if you want to, but you've still got to pay the bills. Yes, yes. That's so close. I have my moments.

Yes, it's hard. It's brutal. Yeah. Isn't it Elon Musk who said being an entrepreneur is like chewing glass and looking out into the abyss. Yeah, it is. But that's the hard you choose, if that makes sense. You know, you could work in a corporate job, it could be something that you love, you know, you could be a CEO of Fortune 500 company, but you love the challenge. You know, The thought of leading 16,000 people invigorates you. That's

your heart. That's what you do. But that's your passion, if that makes sense. And I don't think one must confuse living your passion with being an entrepreneur or being independent. Living your passion is about doing what you love within the context that allows you to do what you love. is about doing what you love within the context that allows you to do what you love. But I'd much rather struggle in life doing what I love than struggle in my life hating every minute. I mean, my claim to fame is I worked formally when I left education for one year, where I reported for an entire year to a desk job. Fortunately, the only woman who successfully managed me was my manager. And it was the longest days of my entire life. I'd arrive at eight,

I'd have my first coffee break at 9.30, which would last an hour and a half, then we'd have to have lunch break and then afternoon coffee break, because the reality is just not how I function. And I died. It had to be done. But she understood this and she utilized me because she wasn't watching the clock. She was watching the creativity and the development and what I was doing. But as I say, that's not my passion. That's not my passion. But sitting next to me, clocking in at 6 a.m. and leaving at 6 p.m. and feeling that they quietly have got stuff done without conversing to another human, that's their passion. And they are quite delighted about their structure and predictability.

They're living their dream. They're living their dream. I just go, we're different. We're different. And thank goodness we all are. I mean, that keeps life interesting. Yeah. I want to ask, 10 years ago, did you see yourself here?

But 10 years ago is when I kind of, around the time is when I met you. So I kind of think you probably did see yourself here. But we can ask, what about one year from now? Listen, I think what's interesting, as much as I'm a strategic and I would say sort of visionary idealist, I'm not an individual that has a set destination. I'm after a journey, which is interestingly enough. So true to type and what I do as an experientialist, I'd rather pick a direction with an intention and then enjoy the

ride. So, you know, I thought perhaps I'd have achieved a lot more, to be honest, Nicole. So when I started the lectures at UCT, I talked about them and I said what my goals were. And I'd said I'd have this in five years, seven years. Well, that ended three years and five years ago, and I'm still exploring. I probably could say to you now, in one year's time, I'll have my latest project complete. I'll have made a crap load of money, and I'll be solving this problem and I'd be excited and I'd be living the dream. But COVID could happen. I mean, this is, you know, let's hope it doesn't. But the reality is that's what exactly happened. You know, I was on a

trajectory, had these goals, COVID happened and being a front on individual, I watched my business close in two months, basically, and everything I'd built for 10 years disappear. And so I had to find another way. So I think that practically speaking, where am I in a year's time? I want to be closer to living my authenticity, to be honest. I want to be closer to living my authenticity, to be honest. I want to be closer to expressing what I feel I need to. I want to be more courageous. I want to be braver. I want to be bolder.

I want to be better at what I do. I want to be more useful. I want to be more effective. I want more money so I can have more experiences. And 10 years from now, it doesn't even come into my picture. It doesn't even come into my picture. I've crossed the 50 mark. So at least you guys, you can do the 10-year question.

But once you cross the 50, 10 years, then you start saying, no, I'm in my 60s. And then you're going, I don't want to think that far ahead. No ways. But I think that at my heart, you know, I'll never die. I'll never get old. You know, that's just for, no, that's not, that is definitely not within my vocabulary.

Yeah. Age is but a number. That's it. It's period. Yes. Or as a friend of mine said, age is the number of the woman you're experiencing. If you are involved with a 23-year-old, then, but that would be completely inappropriate, apparently. What advice do you have for those trying to navigate their path?

You know, you talked a lot about how success, measuring success for you is the journey itself, which a lot of people actually say on this podcast. So I'm curious, you know, for we have a few young listeners that are just starting out in their journey and maybe they're in jobs that they you know don't absolutely love but they're trying to get out there make it in the world even figure out their passion what advice as someone who's followed your you know followed your strength i would say for the past 15 years do you have for people who might be looking to make a change or are just starting out on their

journey? So I think that if I look at it, if I look at it in the context that the reality is you have to generate money. So money is that petrol in the tank we talked about at the beginning. Money determines your lifestyle and lifestyles basically about wellbeing and it's about productivity. There's no doubt in my mind that there's a minimal level of wellbeing required for us to operate at our cognitive best. We can see it in the development of children that if they've been through poverty, that their, their brain function is, is limited literally by poor food, by poor nutrition. So there's no doubt in my particular mind that

from a lifestyle perspective, there's a basic element for health and well-being. And we need that as a minimal level of income. The challenge to get there is that I've always said to individuals right throughout my talks, and I've sort of lived this as well, is that you've got to have a skill. And that skill has to have a price point to it, as we talked about. And once you've got that skill, you've got worth. And I'm sorry to limit us as human beings, but this goes back to the AI thing. But if your skill is replaceable, if your skill, anybody can do as well. So in other words, if there's high competition on your skill and it can be replaceable, I'm afraid you're in trouble. You're in trouble. That is the

simple reality. So for young individuals, what they've got to work out is they've got to try and understand the skills that are going to be required when they are 30, when they are older. So let's say this is a student and they're 19 or 20. They've got to understand not the skill they want to do now, because a lot of people say, follow your passions, do the stuff you love. I go, absolutely, cool. But at that age, you've got to be looking at your first job and the skill that is going to create something called your net worth and your net work. What do I mean? Your skill is useless unless someone knows you've got it and wants it. And that's called your network. So when you go

into employment, what you're generating is you're generating muscle and you're generating people knowledge. And that people knowledge builds relationships or what I call the referral value. builds relationships or what I call the referral value. It is extremely difficult for an 18-year-old to say, I'm going to take an entrepreneurial journey when they've got no defined skill and they've got no network. It's why private schools are so lucrative because you basically buy the network. And I'm not going to mention the school, but there's a school in Cape Town, prominent school in Cape Town. Their parents will basically spend whatever they need to do so you've got to find a skill that others are going to want. The holy grail is finding a skill others want that you love mastering, that you love doing

yourself. So if you take my oldest daughter, she loved drawing since she was a kid, but it wasn't until she did some work experience at Cosmopolitan Magazine, when we had those things called magazines, that she saw people like her with a mastered skill generating value having fun. And for her, she immediately said, there's a direction, there's an idea. So my advice is all the time, doesn't matter what your age is, you've got to have net worth and you've got to have network. And the net worth and network determines what you're going to charge. So I was speaking to another client today, says his

business is in trouble. And I said, that's because you've neglected your network. You've done no development. You've got no one who knows you. You've got nothing. So if I look at what I work on every single day, it's who's talking about me, who knows me, who is interested in what I do, and am I clear about what I can do and how I can help? And that goes back to, if you're not solving a problem,

you have no worth. And it sounds really weird. This has got nothing to do with our human worth, because you can be a lovely human being and your mom and dad can love you. But the reality is if you're going to earn cash, unless they're going to pay for it, you have to be useful. I hope that helps. I think that's good advice, actually. You said it very succinctly. So thank you for that. Would you say that's the best? So that's the professional advice you would give. Would you say that's the best?

What's the best professional advice that you've gotten? It's interesting enough, the professional advice that I've got has been more around character, to be honest, than it is a bit about business. character, to be honest, than it is about business. And the character has been, you know, from other entrepreneurs who have built businesses from nothing and understanding what those foundational years are really like. That if you've got a big dream and you've got a desire to create a product to change the world, everyone must go through that garage experience. There's no, you know, you don't bypass it. You just don't bypass it. And it's the garage experience that determines the success path,

to be honest. It's where the foundations are laid. So I would say the best advice I've got is simple advice about tenacity, courage, bravery, perseverance, understanding people will not get you. So from an entrepreneurial perspective, the advice has been very bespoke for me in terms of what it means to keep going and keep doing that. The business advice, I work that out as I go.

I tend to be independent in that sense. But from a character perspective, listening to guys who are further down the road and what they've encountered and how they got through, that's been instrumental to keep going because it's brutal. I love that. Yeah, it is. And I love that you're talking about the garage and, you know, we're talking about petrol in the tank. So it's like, where are you parking your car? What are you putting in the tank? Where are you going with it?

You know, it's a really great analogy. And so talking about these analogies and things that kind of fill our caps or the things that we fill our tanks with, we do this thing called the Gem of the Week, which is about, you know, what are we filling our cups with as working professionals? So, Saj, do you want to kick us off with what's your dream of the week? Yeah. So this week I'm reading, I've been trying to read more because I realized that I really

enjoy it and I just feel like I don't do it enough. And so it often takes me a while, though, to find a book that I like because I'll start reading. And if I don't like the way the author sounds, I'll just stop reading. I'm very picky about how they write more so than what they write. Don't tell the author, but it's okay for you. So I like psychological thrillers, and I feel like a lot of them are pretty fluffy. So I'm reading one that's called Listen for the Lie.

It's about a podcaster that follows a girl who is accused of murder and trying to uncover the story. The author is very funny, and so I'm actually enjoying it. But I found, I mean, the point of filling your cup is so that, you know, you build yourself up, back up doing things that you enjoy so that, you know, you can do the hard things. And I find that this helps me feel productive, but also enjoy something as like a gentle escape from building these businesses. So in an attempt to kind of reclaim that sanity, I've been trying to read more. And this is what I'm reading for this week. How about you, Nicole? What's filling your cup? So I've also been reading that book for a while now called The Book of Knowing and Worth.

It's really been amazing for me. It's been life changing, actually. knowing and worth it's really been amazing for me it's been life-changing actually and so one of the challenges this week was to do this interesting experiment where part of owning your worth is also realizing that you must take accountability for the things that you think and feel and project into the world and so really understanding that the things that you fear in other people the things that you actually fear in yourself the way you judge other people is actually what you're judging in yourself and you know how you are consciously or subconsciously maybe looking at someone and thinking that they're not worthy of love and abundance that's actually where you

believe that you are not so I've been doing this experiment like looking at people interacting with people you know engaging with people in the world and trying to see where I am kind of limiting my idea of their worth so that I can learn more about myself it's been really eye-opening so yeah that's been it's been really um filling my cup to be able to give people love too and kind of like bless them in worth and knowing that we all won and it comes back to me too, you know. So, yeah, it's been an interesting experiment. I highly recommend it.

So, yeah. How about you, Simon? Listen, I think I love the concept of fill the cup. If I were to define it for myself, it's how am I looking after me? And I think that given who I am, how we talk to ourselves is very powerful, very, very powerful. And if we're going to become effective, shifting the language of self is very important. So a lot of what i'm doing

because i'm i'm more verbal than i am in terms of reading so for me what i listen to is quite important and youtube is just the most amazing resource in that context so for me um and and there's so many creatives who've structured really powerful things. But I'm just enjoying some key podcasts of real individuals sharing their own personal journey, how they've struggled with various things, how they've overcome it, what their perspective has been. So I think a lot of my mornings are filled with individuals who are just sharing authentically from their experience. So the authentic experience rather than the motivational stuff is really, really powerful and wisdom, what I call wisdom. And there's some powerful individuals there who have got some incredible thoughts around changing ways of thinking and attitudes, which are key to pushing through

in terms of what life has to offer you. So yeah, that's how I form my cup. That's awesome. I think it's such a beautiful reminder that every morning we can kind of wake up with wisdom. And that is the beauty of all this technology that we have out there, That is the beauty of all this technology that we have out there, talking about AI, talking about all these things. For everyone out there, how are you navigating this topic further? Are you playing nicely in the world? How are you filling your tank? And where is your money field taking you?

100%. Great summary. And Simon, I think we forgot to mention, but Simon, if you could tell everyone where they can find you. And I think it would be awesome for companies and individuals alike who really resonate with your message to share what's the best way to get in touch with you. So thank you. Well, the company name is Play Nicely. So you can't really forget that. And so it's playnicely.co is the company name and it's CO. So there's no com or anything else.

It's just CO. And then if you're interested or have done ever done CliftonStrengths or call StrengthsFinder, then you can find some key resources that I've developed on another site called Talent to Titan with the two, talenttotitan.com. And I've just created a number of resources to help individuals grow in their self-knowledge and that type of understanding. But I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook professionally as well, Instagram. So you've just got to search for Simon Harry. There's not many of us the irony is the other simon hurry uh prominent simon hurry or there's two prominent simon hurries one is a lawyer um in the uk and the other is actually works for visa uh in the us so there's the one you

should have been talking to about money but thank you so much for having me on the show i appreciate it thank you and i'm sure the other two appreciate your shout out thank you so much for coming on the podcast today simon i think you dropped a lot of really awesome gems and for our listeners out there we'd love to hear from you, you know, what you guys enjoyed from this week's episode. Remember to tag us using hashtag these Friday feels to share your stories and listen to us on all your favorite platforms. And to work with us, have us broadcast Friday feels from your space or organize your next workation. Reach out to us at hello at friday-fields.co. And next week, we have Leon Kowalski joining us and who's had a really interesting and diverse background in engineering,

the arts, and most recently, entrepreneurship as well in the fintech industry. And he's really got a passion for unlocking a greater understanding of financial freedom. So not just for South Africans, another South African in the mix, but the world at large. And so we're really looking forward to talking about building decentralized potentials. Stay tuned to hear more, but until next time, that is our mix. We've had fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed, into the night and into this awesome weekend.

See you next week and keep it real.