The Misinterpretation of Dreams

When he was five years old, Anwar’s family moved to Factreton on the Cape Flats, where he spent most of his childhood. His father died when he was 8 years old and so his mother became a single parent; nevertheless, Anwar doesn’t consider his childhood to have been a particularly difficult one. He was the youngest child of three between his mother and father, and the youngest of his father’s ten children. His father was married twice. Factreton was an area where gangsterism was part of everyday life, but somehow Anwar managed to not get involved in anything of the sort, despite having members of his family who were gang members. He attributes his immunity from gangsterism partly to his mother who was always actively involved in his life, partly to luck and partly to the positive influence of good teachers throughout his schooling career.

During his high school years at Windermere High School, Anwar remembers his Biology teacher telling him he would go to university. This wasn’t something to which he had given much thought previously, but he subsequently applied to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT), but his marks weren’t good enough and he was told he would have to do a bridging course in order to qualify to study Electrical Engineering. He decided against this and ended up in the Social Sciences Faculty studying International Politics and Anthropology. He did his honours in Anthropology and began to do his masters, but dropped out after three months.

Anwar’s GREAT passion has always been sports. In Matric he dislocated a hip playing rugby and so had to refrain from sports for a significant period. But even this couldn’t keep him away from sports, he became more involved in the administrative side of sports. This continued during his university years, where he was chairman of various sporting bodies including the UCT South African Students Sports Union (SASSU) and was the Sports Editor of the UCT student newspaper. He was awarded the Purpin Cup for service to sports at the end of his university career.

After not completing his masters, Anwar worked for UCT Student Affairs for a while, and then in 1999 he moved to Durban to work for Unilever. He worked for Unilever from 1999 to 2006. During his time at Unilever he took a sabbatical and obtained his MBA from Durham University in England, after which he took part in an exchange program at Shanghai University, China. After leaving Unilever in 2006, Anwar spent a few months travelling to various countries mainly in South East Asia. On returning from his travels he went back home to Cape Town and started his own business: FANATICUS. FANATICUS goal is to help people to get more from their passion for sport. This is achieved in various ways, including working with big brands to give them insight into what it is that sports fans want. While FANTATICUS was still embryotic, Anwar received an offer that he couldn’t refuse- in late 2007 he accepted the position of Sports Marketing Manager for Nike SA.

His new job is sports all day! Among other things, he manages Nike SA’s sporting assests: sports teams, athletes and tournaments, and signs up new athletes for Nike. I asked Anwar what gets him out of bed on a morning when he doesn’t really feel like going to work. His reply was that his job doesn’t really feel like work for him! It’s what he’s passionate about; it’s part of his life, not just a job. He’s doing what he really loves.
And should he happen to wake up and feel really averse to going into the office, well then, he just doesn’t go in. (I suspect that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t do any work though!) Obviously financial survival plays a part in getting out of bed every morning, but it really isn’t a chore. What inspires him are people who are striving to get the best out of life, those who are unwilling to settle for second best. He believes there is no one to blame if you’re unhappy with your life, except yourself. If you don’t like something in your life get up and change it, it IS possible. You don’t have to settle.

At present what is most important in Anwar’s life is making small positive differences in the world (this may just be his own world) which could simply be speaking his mind when he sees an injustice. It’s also important to him that he succeeds at what he’s doing now and that he makes a positive impact on the 2010 World Cup. His family is obviously important to him as well, but at the moment he is living away from them so they aren’t his number one priority right now. In the past he felt great pressure to please everybody, but right now he’s focusing on what he wants and what really makes him happy and he wants to give it his best.

Despite all Anwar’s success, he is no stranger to failure. He failed economics at university and failed his first attempt at his learner’s licence! But he chooses not to focus on how he’s failed and his weaknesses, but rather to concentrate on his strengths and become better at what he is good at.

So what does Anwar want to be remembered for? He wants the world to remember Anwar Jappie as someone who NEVER sat in the shadows.
I’m just glad we have at least one intelligent person working at making 2010 a success: Anwar Jappie for Sports Minister!

The thing about Bridget that makes the biggest impression on me is her seemingly inexhaustable supply of energy. She is the prototype multitasking woman, moving with fluidity from one task to the next, never skipping a beat. Now, don’t get the wrong impression, she is most certainly not one of those workaholics without a life. She is just living her life to the absolute best of her ability. I am delighted to have gotten the chance to pick her brain. Here is a little bit more about Bridget: a GREAT woman.

She was born in Durban on 3 July 1982, the youngest of four and the only girl. Bridget describes her childhood as charmed and the worst memory that she has, is of being teased by her older brothers, but she admits that she probably deserved it because she was a crybaby. Her dream was to become a film star. During her matric year she studied double time and wrote both the South African IBE matric exams and the American SATs. She did well enough to qualify for a full scholarship to go and study in the USA and follow her dream. When she got there; however, she was distracted by the Creative Writing program that her college offered and attracted to the more secluded, peaceful and flexible lifestyle of a writer. But she says she’s always been writing, even before she started school she used to “write” little books with a few words and lots of illustrations.

The most influential thing in Bridget’s childhood was the amazing support she received from her family, even when she failed at something. She never felt she had anything to prove and nothing was out of her reach. And when she fails in life or work, she tries to use the situation to keep learning and tries to approach things in a different way on the next attempt. The times she feels she’s failed the most is when she’s failed to treat people the right way, because she may have been unaware or too wrapped up in herself at the time.

What gets Bridget out of bed in the morning? She still has so much she wants to express. What keeps her inspired? Simple things: reading of course, gardening in the early morning or late afternoon, heartrending movies, good food, the sea, a butterfly flying into her cottage are just a few. The main challenge in her life is keeping perspective; being a freelance writer working from home, it’s easy to get lost in the world of words.

And laughter yoga? She says she wants to teach underprivileged children laughter yoga! I mentioned, cynically, that I could think of a thousand other things that would benefit underprivileged children, but I really don’t get how they would benefit from laughter yoga! Bridget’s reply is that so many underprivileged children just don’t have fun, which is an essential part of childhood and, therefore, essential to becoming a balanced adult.

Now I can’t disagree with that, but I do feel that Bridget wears rose tinted glasses through which she views the world. Maybe she floats around in a world of magical realism like the characters in her novel. But who said this is a bad thing? I think the world needs more people who are happy and somewhat idealistic. I do believe that the happy people are NOT the ones prone to planning wars and mass destruction!