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Tuesday, September 9, 2008

EXPECT The Unexpected... Accept The Unacceptable

Was in a discussion, re: Community 100 Empowered, with a team from Nedbank at Ubuntu Kraal, Orlando West, Soweto - see: http://www.tsfos.co.za/gallery-1.5.8/NedbankUbuntu0908 .

I happened to say that Ivan Andersen and I have taken the view on all of our JV's, no matter where they are based or who they are structured with, to '..expect the unexpected.. and.. accept the unacceptable..'!

The response to this statement has been amazing, almost as if we're some kind of profound gurus of some kind.

So what are we actually saying... well, I think it is that life is so hectic, and events moving at such a pace all around us, and people are so fickle and/or well-meaning, that almost anything that can go wrong to trip you up on your best-laid plans probably can and will go wrong.

And most often this happens at the very worst time or when you can least afford it... or when you really just don't want any more hassles in your life... or when you finally got your feet up to watch TV or just relax. Never at the right time!

Given that I don't have much hair left to pull out... we now just take the happening on the chin and look for a work-around that involves damage-limitation at worst or a better solution at best.

We attempt not to waste time on crying over spilt milk if it does not result in a fix that ensures that the problem occurence will not repeat itself. Sometimes... things just happen..!

A classic example of this statement coming into effect happened just yesterday at our local Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

See: JSE: Trade halted - Sep 8 2008 11:02AM Fin24.com reporter - Johannesburg - Trade on the JSE equity market was halted at 10:30 on Monday morning, with the bourse saying it was investigating reasons for the stop in trade.

See: Brokers 'robbed of R100m' - Sep 8 2008 5:23PM - Marc Ashton - Johannesburg - Brokers look set to have lost up to R100m in brokerage charges following a technical glitch which saw the JSE closed for trade for most of Monday. "The South African broking community has been robbed of R100m based on the R15bn turnover I believed the market could have traded," said Lavan Gopaul of Cortex Securities. "Investors were robbed of an opportunity to take some profit."

Both unexpected and unnacceptable! Wonder how they are dealing with it?

Lat week I had an unexpected call at 6:45 on Monday evening... my daughter was in distress on the other end having just been in a crash. Every father's nightmare. Was she okay? Anyone hurt? Can she distinguish reality through the shock? Took me 20 minutes to get to the scene... and only the tow truck operators were there arguing over who was going to tow the cars. Unacceptable!

She was okay... as was the other youngster who skipped a red light straight in front of my daughter. Both cars were a write-off. Unacceptable!

But, what do you do? Punch his lights out?

Nope... I'm living under the principle of '..expect the unexpected... accept the unacceptable..' and look for the positive workaround.

I thanked God for them both being alive. It happened. Now deal with it positively.

Regards
Trevor Nel - 011 - 705-2790 - http://www.innercircleforum.com/
trevor@innercircleforum.com

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