Noel Nqabeni Simela

Global Student.
Well rounded IT Consultant with 25 years of Practical Experience.
Tech Evangelist.

[Emir Han @RealEmirHan]

Charlize Theron had to stop the interview because she got too sweaty 😳

[JOKAMRREDPILLZ @JOKAQARMY1]

Stevie Wonder has been playing us this entire time ⏲️.

[Lerato Pillay 🇿🇦💎🇿🇦 @LeratoPillayZA]

The wife of King Misuzulu has just proven exactly the things said by the King on this video! Ain’t no way you’d just record a King and post for the whole world to see, the FAQ! 🚮 it’s so wrong in ALL LEVELS.
Why don’t you call the family members and discuss issues? Why social media, for a whole King!

[Lewis 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @WaldronLewis]

Elon Musk literally sat down for a 45-minute talk with Y Combinator that explains how to build world-changing companies better than any business school on earth. This is the advice he gave a room full of young founders:

1. Don't try to build something great. Try to build something useful.

Everyone obsesses over greatness. Musk says that's the wrong target. "I didn't originally think I would build something great. I wanted to try to build something useful. I didn't think I would build anything particularly great. Seemed unlikely, but I wanted to at least try." Aim for useful first. Greatness, if it comes, is a byproduct.

2. When you can't get in the front door, build your own door.

Before Musk started his first company, he tried to get a job at Netscape. "I sent my resume into Netscape and nobody responded. I tried hanging out in the lobby to see if I could bump into someone, but I was too shy to talk to anyone. So I'm like, this is ridiculous, I'll just write software myself." He didn't set out to be a founder. He became one because no one would hire him.

3. He slept in the office and showered at the YMCA.

The origin of his first company was not glamorous. "We couldn't even afford a place to stay. The office was 500 bucks a month, so we just slept in the office and showered at the YMCA." He couldn't afford proper internet either, so he drilled a hole through the office floor and ran a cable to the internet provider downstairs. That was the founder of the future richest man on earth.

4. Keep the chips on the table.

When Musk sold his first company, he received a $20 million cheque. His bank balance went from $10,000 to $20 million overnight. Most people would have stopped. He put almost all of it straight back into his next company. "I kept the chips on the table." He did the same thing decades later, over and over. He hates money sitting idle. Money is fuel for the next mission.

5. Start with the mission, then work backwards to make it a business.

Musk didn't start SpaceX to make money. He went on the NASA website to find out when humans were going to Mars, and there was no plan. So he decided to build one. "There had been no prior example of a rocket startup succeeding. A small chance of success is better than no chance of success." The mission came first. The business model came later.

6. He started SpaceX expecting to fail.

He is brutally honest about the odds. "SpaceX started in mid-2002 expecting to fail. Probably 90% chance of failing. When recruiting people, I said, we're probably going to die, but small chance we might not die." The first three launches failed. The fourth one worked with no money left. "If the fourth launch hadn't worked, it would have been curtains. We made it by the skin of our teeth."

7. Break every problem down to physics.

This is the core of how Musk thinks. "First principles means break things down to the fundamental elements that are most likely to be true, then reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy." His example is rockets. Everyone priced them based on what old rockets cost. Musk asked what a rocket is actually made of, priced the raw metals, and found the materials were only 1-2% of the historical price. The rest was inefficiency he could attack.

8. When told something takes 24 months, break it down and do it in six.

Last year xAI needed a giant computer to train its AI. Suppliers said it would take 18 to 24 months. "It's like, well, we need to get that done in six months or we won't be competitive." So he broke it into parts. Needed a building, so he found an old factory. Needed power, so he rented generators. Needed cooling, so he rented a quarter of America's mobile cooling capacity. He slept in the data centre and ran cabling himself. It got done.

9. Watch your ego-to-ability ratio.

Musk's single sharpest piece of advice for young founders is about staying honest with yourself. "A major failure mode is when your ego-to-ability ratio gets too high. Then you break the feedback loop to reality." Keep the ego small, internalise responsibility for everything, and stay ruthlessly connected to what's actually true. "You want to close the loop on reality hard. That's a super big deal."

10. Chase work, not glory.

His closing philosophy ties it all together. "It's so hard to be useful. The area under the curve of total utility is how useful you've been to your fellow human beings times how many people. If you aspire to do true work, your probability of success is much higher. Don't aspire to glory, aspire to work."

He was ridiculed for years. The press called him "internet guy attempting to build a rocket company." He agreed it sounded absurd. He did it anyway, because a small chance of doing something useful beat no chance at all.

Here's the thing though....

Musk became the most followed founder alive because everything he does happens in public. The launches, the failures, the talks like this one. The companies made him powerful. The personal brand made his every word travel around the world before he finishes saying it.

We build massive distribution and grow personal brands on X and beyond without our clients lifting a finger.

If you're a founder or VC looking for that kind of exposure, book a call below.

We average 1.5M views a week.

https://t.co/UoXuYlkBQq

[AfrikTimes @afriktimesint]

NEW FOOTAGE EMERGES: YOUNG WOMAN CAPTURES FINAL MOMENTS INSIDE HOT AIR BALLOON AS IT DESCENDS IN UNCONTROLLED FREE FALL AFTER MID-AIR FIRE

A heartbreaking incident in Brazil has left the nation in shock after a hot air balloon caught fire mid-flight, leading to a fatal crash from a significant altitude.

Reports indicate that a young woman on board captured the final moments inside the balloon as it rapidly descended in uncontrolled free fall after the fire broke out. The video, now widely circulated, shows the terrifying descent as the aircraft went down with passengers trapped onboard.

Authorities say the balloon was carrying a family group when the fire erupted at a high altitude, leaving little to no chance of escape. Emergency responders were deployed immediately, but survivors were not confirmed at the time of reporting.

The incident has triggered widespread grief across Brazil, with social media flooded by condolences and calls for stricter safety regulations in aerial tourism.

Investigations are currently underway to determine what caused the fire and whether safety protocols were violated.

This remains a developing story.

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@linuxfoundation @vllm_project @PyTorch I love Minimax

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@HedgieMarkets This is exactly where the AI Bubble bursts.

[Hasan @Ubermenscchh]

🚨Anthropic recently showed a 24-minute workshop on how to actually do prompts for Claude.

Taught by the people who built it.

Free. No registration. No paywall.

I've seen $300 courses that don't cover what they teach in the first 8 minutes.

Watch it and bookmark it now.

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

I'm registered to attend South Africa Infrastructure Expo featuring Transport Evolution Africa, taking place 9 – 11 June 2026 at Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg.

Don’t miss out. See you there. https://t.co/F7izjYnNp2

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

Dynamics GP PM to Bank Management - Cashbook Data Flow https://t.co/fQjNMRrTrX #dynamicsgp ##dynamics365

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@50cent We need a Documentary on @50cent , any takers.

[ye-toshi nakamoto @Kanyeeastyee]

The whole world owes the Goat 🐐 ye fka kanye west an apology right now, for speaking the truth all along

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

Fear is the projection of your mind.

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@50cent Dude, but we all know that you the Biggest Snitch, and all your body guards are officers.

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@50cent True has been.

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@justinbieber OK

[mitsuri @0xmitsurii]

How Richard Branson started an airline with no money.

[SA🇿🇦 FIRST BEFORE AFRICA🌍 @MusaMzilikazi]

LOOOOOOOOOL

This is still funny

[Noel Nqabeni Simela @SimNqabe]

@Heirlooming @jarule @cthagod @djenvy @breakfastclubam @50cent read before you post