I did NOT Grow Up around Executives.
I did NOT Grow Up around Engineers, Strategists, or Boardrooms.

I Grew Up around Survival.

I Grew Up watching Adults Stretch Dignity Across Poverty. I Grew Up in Environments where Stability was Fragile, where Domestic Conflict was Normal Noise, and where Tomorrow was Negotiated Daily rather than planned.

There were Nights when the Street was safer than the House.
There were Days when Hunger competed with Hope.

There was NO Roadmap. No one Explained Wealth Creation, Leadership Psychology, Governance, or How Systems Actually Work. No one Explained that Life is often Less about Opportunity and More about Architecture, i.e., the Invisible Structure you Build inside Your Own Mind.

What I did Have Was… Curiosity. And Eventually, Curiosity Found Paper.

The First Escape Was Not Geography. It Was Reading.

I Discovered Early that Books did Something Strange.

It Created Silence.

• Not Silence in the World.
• Silence Inside my Head.

When Chaos Surrounded Me, reading allowed me to step into Another Dimension, one where Ideas Replaced Fear, where Structure Replaced Confusion, and where Possibility Replaced Resignation.

I, as crazy as I was, I read Everything I could get my Hands On.

• Encyclopaedias.
• Religious Texts.
• Old Borrowed Textbooks.
• Self-Development Books.
• Motivational Literature.
• Autobiographies and…
• Technical Manuals I barely understood at the time.

I did not READ because it was Fashionable.
I READ because it was Survival.

Every Page became a Quiet Rebellion against the Environment I was Born Into.

Inside those pages, I made a Private Promise to Myself:

NO Circumstance, NO Background, NO Environment, and NO Human Being would define the limits of my Future.

Reading Gave Me something Poverty could not Steal. It Gave Me Direction.

Books Became My First Mentors

• Before I ever Sat in a Classroom for Engineering…
• Before I Earned Academic Qualifications…
• Before I Walked into Executive Offices…

Books were already Teaching me how to Think.

Later in life, Education opened Doors.
But reading built the person who could walk through them.

My journey from Apprenticeship to Tradesman, from Tradesman to Technician, from Technician to Engineer, and eventually into Executive Leadership was NOT built on Ambition alone. It was built on Mental Infrastructure; the Internal Frameworks Reading Quietly Installs.

Books taught me Lessons no Workplace Induction Ever Could:

1. It taught me how Organizations Collapse when incentives reward the wrong behaviour
2. How Companies Bleed through hidden quality failures and rework
3. Why some Leaders Build Loyalty while others manufacture obedience
4. Why Governance Failures always begin as moral failures
5. How Power Without Structure eventually becomes institutional violence
6. How Systems Collapse slowly, then suddenly

Books did NOT give me Answers.

Books gave me Language.

And Language is How you Defend Yourself Intellectually in Rooms where Decisions Shape Lives.

In Africa, Reading Is Not a Luxury. It Is Resistance.

I Strongly do not Believe that Africa is Short of Talent.
Africa however, is Short of Structural Opportunity.

That difference matters.

When Physical Infrastructure Lags, Intellectual Infrastructure becomes Survival Equipment.

Reading then Becomes:

• Your Private University
• Your Unfair Advantage
• Your Quiet Rebellion
• Your Strategic Equalizer
• Your Psychological Liberation

We Cannot always Wait for Education Systems to Reform.
We Cannot always Wait for Institutions to Mentor Us.
We Cannot always Wait for Leadership to Create Opportunity.

Sometimes it required from us to build ourselves anyway.

Across Namibia and across the Continent, Reading is how individuals close the Development Gap long before governments do.

Leaders Who Stop Reading Become Dangerous

One of the most uncomfortable truths I have observed in leadership is this:

• Some People Stop Learning the moment they receive Authority.

They Manage People the way they were Managed, through Fear, Habit, and Unexamined Assumptions. They set Targets driven by Ego instead of Evidence. They Suppress Transparency because it Exposes their Intellectual Limits.

A Leader who Stops Reading does not become Stable.

They become Predictable.

Predictable Leaders are easily Manipulated by Stronger Personalities, by Political Pressure, and by Flawed Internal Cultures. They mistake Compliance for Trust. They mistake Silence for Alignment. They mistake Fear for Respect.

Leadership requires Capabilities that Promotions Cannot Deliver, like:

• Emotional Literacy
• Systems Thinking
• Ethical Self-Regulation
• Historical Awareness
• Strategic Imagination
• Humility under Uncertainty

These Skills are not Conferred by Titles.
They are Developed through Intellectual Discipline.

Reading is the Training Ground for that Discipline.

To Simplify it – Reading Is an Operating System Upgrade

E.g. In Engineering, no Responsible Professional will Scale a System without Upgrading it First.

Leadership should Follow the same Principle.

Reading will Naturally Upgrades Our:

• Cognitive Architecture
• Decision-Making Frameworks
• Language for Complexity
• Tolerance for Ambiguity
• Awareness of Unintended Consequences and…
• Personal Accountability for Power

Without Reading, Leaders recycle Inherited Thinking.

With Reading, Leaders interrogate Inherited Thinking.

That is where I believe, real transformation begins.

My Past Taught Me Resilience. Reading Taught Me Structure.

When I look back, I surely do not Romanticize Hardship. Poverty is not and should not be a Motivational Tool. Trauma is not Character Development. These are all Obstacles.

What Hardship did give me was Endurance.

Reading Gave me Direction.

My Academic Journey, from Trade Qualification to Engineering, Naval Architecture, and postgraduate studies, opened Professional Doors. But reading filled the Intellectual Gaps between those Qualifications. 

It Connected disciplines. It Built Continuity between Survival and Leadership.

Reading became the Bridge between who I WAS and who I NEEDED to Become.

Why Africa’s Future Depends on Leaders Who Read

I wholeheartedly believe that Africa’s next phase of development will not be determined only by Capital, Infrastructure,or Political Reform.

It will be determined by Cognitive Leadership.

We need Leaders who Understand Complexity. Leaders who can Think Across Systems. Leaders who Understand Governance, Psychology, Economics, Ethics, and History simultaneously.

That level of leadership cannot be trained only through experience.

It must be Cultivated Intentionally.

And Reading remains one of the most Powerful, Accessible, and Democratic Tools for Cultivating it.

My Final Reflection…

I noticed that people often describe Reading as a Hobby.

For many of us, it is NOT a Hobby.It is Construction

Reading is How you Build the Life that was Never Designed for You.
Reading is How you Protect Yourself in Rooms you were Never Expected to Enter.
Reading is How you Transform Survival into Structure.
Reading is How Leadership becomes Responsibility instead of Performance.

Leaders do NOT Read to Appear Intelligent.
Leaders Read to Avoid becoming a Danger to the People they Lead.

If YOU want to Lead, Read.
If YOU want to Grow, Read.
If YOU want to Change your Future, Build the Mind that will Negotiate for it.

Please note:
I don’t think for one second that my account is a definitive account. I offer it no more than an opening round in a conversation that I hope you will join in.

End