Hunger for success will get you there

You don’t need capital, training or contacts to reach your financial goals, just an insatiable hunger to get there.

August 24, 2016

2 minutes read

Mirriam Nuska Zwane (guest speaker) accepts the symbolic gryphon from Jacques van Heerden (Gryphon Enterprise Development CEO) for her talk at the A-Round 10 Business Clusters breakfast forum.

Mirriam Nuska Zwane, head of the Rivers Foundation and co-founder of Praxis Computing, relayed her entrepreneurial journey at the A-Round Ten Business Clusters (ARTBC) meeting, hosted by Gryphon Enterprise Development, recently.

The ARTBC is a business breakfast forum where each meeting has a different speaker, each sharing their stories of success and what they learnt along the way.

As the co-founder of Praxis Computing, Zwane started out with no knowledge of or training in information technology (IT).

She applied and was accepted for an IT job over a man from IBM.

“They saw the hunger in me and I taught myself by buying and studying books,” she said.

“I did everything at this company the way I would like it to be done at my own company in the future.

“I came in early, left late, did not take lunch breaks and did not drink too much water, to avoid having to go to the loo too often.

“When the time came, I did not have capital or computers to start a company, just myself, but you don’t need anything more.”

When Zwane and a partner started Praxis Computing in 1991, they took in people without IT knowledge and always overlooked applicants’ dress code and way of speaking.

“We looked at commitment and ambition in people, just as it started with me,” she said.

Zwane ventured into more philanthropic territory when she joined the Rivers Foundation in 2008.

One of the current projects of the organisation is feeding pupils at the Umyezane Primary School, in Daveyton.

“We also donate school desks, chairs and uniforms to the children and help the girls with sanitary towels every month,” Zwane added.

“I’m impatient, so, when I see a need for help I jump at it immediately.”

The ARTBC breakfasts are held every penultimate Friday of the month, at Cherrylane Gourmet Café, in Northmead, from 7.25am to 8.30am.

There is a fee for the breakfast buffet.

For more information, contact Bonnie Chimanikire on 011 849 9481.