Ntabeni Ndeza Ventures

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[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

1. Now I must turn to how I created my competitive advantage while at Kantor & Immerman.
2. When the results for my studies in International Conflict Resolution came, I had a distinction. I was invited to seek a scholarship to pursue further studies. I was tempted. I called Professor Welshman Ncube. I hope he still remembers our conversation. He said, Tawanda, I would have liked to join Kantor & Immerman myself. But you are lucky enough to be there. Why would you quit such a job to pursue a Masters Degree? I idolized him and Pearson Nherere. So I decided to stay and develop at Kantor & Immerman.
3. There was a wave of Socialism during my college days and indeed when I started practicing law in 1993. Unions were strong. And Robert Owen’s 8- 8- 8 Rule was much talked about and practiced. I was in a field where all my competitors had law degrees. Some were even more educated and more experienced . Therefore I decided I would differentiate myself by breaking the 8- 8- 8 rule. If others slept for 8 hours, I would reduce my sleep by a minimum of 2 hours. I would invest the two hours in work and research. If others went home at 4:30 to rest or play, I would use those 8 hours to work and research. In the result, I had the most working hours. I wasn’t alone. Anthony Eastwood would also be in the office, working! At times we would work until the morning. Bad habits? Maybe yes. But it was a sacrifice I had to make. I needed to invest more than my colleagues and competitors in order to do better than them.
4. When I received instructions from a client, I would research all the relevant law before I even wrote a single letter on the matter. I would seek from the client all the relevant evidence from the outset. If I thought I could win the case, then I would initiate the litigation, often with a letter of demand. If I was in doubt, I would advise the client and I would recommend a settlement or that the client should forget about the matter altogether. With that approach, my success rate was very high. My clients’ confidence in me rose sky high.
5. My brother Selby Hwacha cheered me on. He would say, Tawanda, you must not just practice law, you must make the law! This was a call to innovate. To find solutions to complex legal matters. Indeed when I look back at the number of reported judgments with my name on them, I am satisfied that I did my part.
6. I started receiving commendations from my clients, from judges of the Supreme Court and from judges of the High Court. In a Supreme Court judgment, Justice McNally even commented on the quality of my presentation. When I retired from active law practice in 1998, the Supreme through Advocate Chris Anderson SC who was appearing against Advocate DeBourbon SC requested my attendance. The bench thanked me for my contribution to the profession. Those days, it was every lawyers’ dream to receive commendations from a bench of such quality.
7. I hope Tendai Biti will still remember the Freddy Goronga matter. I made an urgent Application informa pauparis after receiving instructions around 6pm to stop the eviction of Porta Farm Squatters that had been scheduled for 4am the next morning. We had an urgent Court Hearing before Sandura JP and Adam J at 9 pm. I argued that the right to life includes the right to livelihood. Therefore Government could not eject the Porta Farm squatters withought providing them with suitable alternative accommodation. I got the provisional order. On the return day, the two of us were summoned to Justice Gillespie’s chambers. He commended us for our performance and indicated that we could be the future of the profession. We settled the matter with the result that Dzivarasekwa extension was created to accommodate the squatters. That made us even more fired up.
Create a competitive advantage to out perform your competitors. Innovate to find solutions that address your clients’/ customers’ needs.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

The management of one’s diary is very important for any business. Many lawyers will be familiar with this, therefore I will not dwell much on it.
1. Every morning, the first thing you do is attend to your diary. You must have an IN tray and an Out tray. The trays could be virtual of manual. You look at everything in your In Tray and you allocate the day of the week on which you will attend to the task.
2. You pull out all the files Diarized for the day and you allocate the time on the day during which you will attend to the task having regard to your meetings and court schedules. You don’t go home until you complete the tasks for the day.

3. I followed this routine religiously. But what I did differently is how I planned my work and evaluated my performance. I grew up in the farms where my father was a foreman. In farms, we deal with biological assets. Time is of the essence all the time. Doing things right is not enough. You must do things right and timely. Thus you must have daily objectives and you must evaluate your performance against set targets on a daily basis. You must understand where you failed and the reasons there for. Any failures could mean death of crops or animals.
4. So I used to write my plans on little pieces of paper. My PA then and now, Mrs Moyo, would collect these and file them. My plans were based on my answers to very basic questions:
4.1 what did I come to work to do today?
4.2. What did I manage to do?
4.3.what did I fail to do and why?
4.4 how do I plan to correct my failures tomorrow?

Everyday and at the end of the day, I would carry out this evaluation. I continue to use this tool to evaluate my work and that of my subordinates to the present day. It has worked for me. I am so heartened that in the USA, DOGE is now calling for accountability of Civil Servants on weekly tasks. Please try using a similar tool. You could achieve amazing results.

[Tawanda Nyambirai @tawandan1]

So I started saving. I was to later learn the same principle from one of the wealthiest Zimbabweans I had the privilege to meet, the late Roy Turner. I was introduced to him by Solomon Mugavazi at the time I was advising on the Kingdom Meikles merger. I was wealthy when I met him. He had no car. He used public transport and a bicycle as transport. He planted a coffee tree at his house in Alexandra Park because he felt coffee was too expensive. He boarded a bus to Mutare to buy the seedlings for the coffee plant! Yet here was a man who was a top 10 shareholder of most of the blue chip listed companies. He was the only man who stood between me and my takeover of Power Speed (Electro Sales etc) I became the second largest shareholder after him. But he wouldn’t sell to me. I had to divest. But I made a huge profit.

Roy Turner said the only job he had was that of a civil servant. But from day one, he put most of his salary into the stock market. He told me there is no IPO he didn’t participate in. And his portfolio grew and grew. He was worth hundreds of Millions in USD. From investing his earnings into the stock market and the money market.

I started saving money. I was schooled about the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange later when I was assisting Anthony and Mervin on the ZSE matters. Before then, I kept my money in savings accounts at banks. We kept and sold chickens. We grew and sold mbambaira and vegetables. We removed meat from our diet at home. Matemba became a delicacy. Vegetables and milk featured prominently in our diet. We stopped renting accommodation in town, bought a stand in Domboshava and moved there. We saved and saved. We have such a hunger of success. We shared the hunger with Mrs Nyambirai. And that made everything a lot easier. And our wealth continued to grow. Yet we led a modest life.

I must tell a story about what happened when I was building in Domboshava. I needed timber. There was a place called Woodrow Timbers near the railways at the corner of ED Mnangagwa and Robert Mugabe/ Old Mutare. The employees there offered me a cheaper price if I paid them on the side. I imagined the same thing being done to me after I became a big business person. I declined the offer and opted to pay the higher price. You live by the sword, you die by the sword! To quote our Lord in the Holy Bible, Whatever you wish that man would do to you, do so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. You need strong values to build a good corporate culture.

[Ronald Makeleni @RonaldMakeleni]

From Cash to Cattle to Growth

[Goldman Sachs @GoldmanSachs]

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[Ntabeni Ndeza Ventures @NtabeniNdeza]

@josiahjdp Thank you. It's powerful and educational

[Josiah @josiahjdp]

Part 2 🍿

I didn’t confront Paige that night.

That sentence sounds simple now, but at the time, it felt like holding a live wire in my bare hand and deciding not to flinch.

Vivian stayed at my table until Paige and Sterling stood up. Paige touched the back of her hair before leaving, checking herself in the reflection of the window. Sterling placed a hand at the small of her back. It was a small gesture, possessive, and practiced.

They passed within twelve feet of me.

[Orange Book 🍊📖 @orangebook]

It's easier to blame "marriage" than to question your ability to marry the right person.

It's easier to blame "capitalism" than to question your ability to invest with intelligence.

It's easier to blame "genetics" than to question your ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

[The married man @marriedmn]

If you are planning to marry a woman, stop asking childish questions like:

“What’s your favorite color?”
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Who is your celebrity crush?”

Those questions won’t help you know her.

Ask her THESE instead- and you will know who she really is......

[Fact @Fact]

Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.

[Bedroom King @bedroomking2]

Stop asking her stupid questions like:

“What’s your favourite colour?”
" Which is your favourite food"
" How many are you in your family"

Here are 20 powerful questions that separate you from every other guy.....

[𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒍𝒕 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 @Shadaya_Knight]

A man who is appreciated, will always do more than expected

[Mind and Glory 🎖 @mindandglory]

Dangerous men are rarely in a rush. They understand that precision always outperforms urgency.

[Dating Dynamics @Dating_Dynamics]

A man will only make a woman the center of his life when his life lacks direction, power, and fun.

[Celestara @celestaracosmos]

It took me 10 years to realize: no matter how much you trust the people around you, don’t tell them everything.

[Orange Book 🍊📖 @orangebook]

Anxiety is the gap between your current standards and the standards you should have.

[Fact @Fact]

When meeting someone for the 1st time, ask them what they LIKE to do, rather than what they do. It’ll get them excited.

[Ja Leto @_falsi1ke]

People will be rich regardless of whether you like them or not. Irrespective of whether what they're doing is moral or ethical. The rules of Money do not have feelings or opinions.

[Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson]

"A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance."

— Hunter S. Thompson

[Fact @Fact]

If you don't set goals you will always lack direction.