Zig when others zag.
When I moved from London to Cape Town in 2005, it felt like I was swimming against the tide.
As I passed through immigration that day, I had the feeling I was the only one coming in to stay and many, many more were in the outbound queue.
More than 1.5 million South Africans have moved abroad since then.
At the time my family and friends in the US, UK and Europe were puzzled. Why move to a country and continent with so many problems and risks.
Sure, South Africa has its share of challenges.
But for me, it’s a place that’s welcomed me, helped me start two businesses, and has given me a community and a sense of belonging that runs deep.
And now, it feels like the tide is changing.
The last few years (and weeks) have proved that almost nowhere in the globe is completely safe.
For now Cape Town feels very far away from a lot of the global chaos.
And it's booming.
There is a real entrepreneurial energy in the air.
Every week I meet founders setting up new really interesting business.
Some of the best decisions I’ve made in my life at the time looked crazy.
Like launching a digital agency in South Africa in 2005 when the online population was 5%.
Or selling my business years before it had maxed out its growth potential because I saw that buyer interest was peaking.
Or creating an off-shore tech business for European clients when everyone was building hubs in Easter Europe.
None of those decisions were obvious at the time.
But that is often the nature of opportunity.
By the time something feels safe, crowded and widely accepted, most of the upside has already been gained by competitors.
Entrepreneurship is rarely about eliminating risk. It is about choosing the right risks.
The ones where the downside is survivable but the upside could be transformational.
So sometimes the most rational move is the one that looks slightly irrational to everyone else.
Which brings me back to that day at immigration in 2005.
What looked like swimming against the tide turned out to be exactly the current I needed.