Originally published in www.tiisetsomaloma.co.za

When it rained, with my very clean school uniform, I would walk into the pool of rainwater outside our front yard. Sometimes I would throw my grandma with stones. This was all in protest of not going to school.

Such tendencies made sure I went through Sub A to standard 1 by the whip, grade 1 to 3 as it is known today. The rod wasn’t spared. The child didn’t perish. S/O to Kwanamoloto Primary School.

1993. I was 6 or 7 years old. I still wet my bed, and I stayed with “Mma,” my grandma.

I saved up money to buy vegetable seeds: carrots, cabbage, and spinach. With passion and hard work, I nursed my little farm. We didn’t have running water; most of the houses didn’t. Actually, none of the houses in the area did.

Every (or most) morning after noticing that I had wet my bed, it would be a reminder to water my garden. I did.

When my garden had ripe, fresh produce, neighbours came to ask for my veggies. My grandma, she is sweet; she gave them a bit. They were poor. To come to think about it, we were poor as well—mud houses and stuff. I didn’t know we were poor.

A bit for everyone was all of my produce. I didn’t make any cents off my first business. Grandma killed it.

Who knows, maybe I could have been the 1st rich and young black something.

1997 or 8, like a true m*^&&* I came back and started a farming business again, this time at my house (parents’ house). It wasn’t long enough till my mother killed it in the same fashion her mother did to my first. Mxm!!

I guess she got it from her mother!

Many years later, I also killed a lot of businesses.

I give credit to Grandma and her daughter (Momma) for not only infecting me with the spirit of killing businesses. But also never discouraging me from doing anything I wanted to do in life and actually allowing such space. They gave me the money to buy those seeds.

I appreciate it. I am able to persist and move forward after a dead venture.

I thought it would be fun writing this post; I couldn’t figure out the moral of it. It is just a reminder of my love for entrepreneurship.

ABOUT WRITER: Tiisetso Maloma is the founder of Startup Picnic and author of ‘Forget The Business Plan Use This Short Model.’ He researches entrepreneurship, consults, and does motivational talks. As part of our guest entrepreneur column, Maloma talks about his love for entrepreneurship.