By 
Slavery was abolished in South Africa in the early 19th century. Although this was a mandatory first step, it would take decades, if not longer, for victims of slavery to catch up. The adults and even the children of those generations had a restriction that would probably, for most of them, be of such a nature that they would never live to truly relish the benefits of true freedom: an educated and liberated mind!
But as Confucius claims, the best time to help people would have been much earlier. Otherwise, the next best time is now.
Fast forward to June 25, 2011. My wife and I, along with other guests, had the privilege and honor of attending the Backsberg Alumni Inaugural Dinner. Among the guests were Mr. Donald Grant, MEC for Education Western Cape, and his wife. The guests of honor? Alumni and current students from tertiary institutions who have been and are supported by Michael and Jill Back, the owners of Backsberg!
There were 22 of the group of 23 students who were the recipients of the scholarships. Each told their story about how they had wanted to study and how they had worked or heard about the tremendous generosity of Michael and Jill. We hear from students whose parents were illiterate, who were hard-working, and who had no way of providing their children with something they never had the advantage of getting, namely an education!
Listening to these students and alumni tell their stories brought tears to my wife’s eyes and a lump in her throat. We heard from young children that they were now busy with their second year of papers on their way to earning their CA grade. We heard from a young woman who was now busy with her studies to become a diesel mechanic. We heard from a number that she was studying to become a financial manager, or had become one. We heard about Apollo Bomvana, who was now a sales manager at a major media company after studying marketing management at CPUT, thanks to the generosity of Back Family! And so I could go on!
Many of the students had no formal link to the farm or family, but had only heard of the opportunity and chose to approach Michael for a grant. What makes this even more spectacular is that the only thing the Backs demanded of the recipients was the requirement to pass! There was no obligation to work for Backsberg or to pay any money back, nothing!
If you look at the investment that Michael and Jill had made over the last few years, you have to differentiate between a direct investment in the beneficiaries, a leverage effect in the economy, and a leverage effect from the people themselves and their descendants. The Backs probably spent close to a million rand on this venture of theirs. Money that they gave up and that they saw as part of their social responsibility towards people who had not had the opportunities that they had. These are people who did what they did without asking what was in it for them. There was no economic gain for Backsberg, and the decisions were made without thinking about one or another profitability. Listening to Apollo talk about how Michael had taken him to Cape Town for career advice and then sent him to Stellenbosch for IT training ahead of his marketing studies next year makes it clear that this was a set of actions! solely for the benefit of Apollo!
Second, let’s talk about the effect of leverage in the economy. These people, who had cost the Back close to a million rand, will earn much higher wages than they would have been if they had remained workers. It wouldn’t be outrageous to say that the wage differentials would run into the tens of millions! The effect this will eventually have on the country’s economy is huge! And who says that it is not worth doing good to others!
The third aspect that I would like to talk about refers to the social leverage that this set of actions by the Backs has brought and will bring. It is closely related to the second factor. The children and families of these beneficiaries will also have a much better chance of receiving an education. This will increase the economic leverage referred to in the previous paragraph. It will increase the social profiles of these people as well as that of their families. Your children will grow up as children with parents who could and would want to look life in the eye without feeling intimidated, without feeling less than, without feeling inferior to others! Most of all, they would grow up as people who now had more choices in life, all because their parents were lucky enough to receive a grant through the generosity of Back Family!
Malcolm Gladwell writes about this effect in his thought-provoking book Outliers. It takes special people like the Back family to make this happen.
Writing this reminds me of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a very interesting gentleman that I had the great privilege of meeting, namely Gavin Cowley. We would know him as a very successful sportsman in rugby, cricket and hockey, and he is currently a rugby commentator as well as marketing director for Adidas South Africa. He talked about companies that need an X factor to stand out. He also referred to athletes like Quade Cooper with that X factor. I personally would list Gavin as one of that elite group of people who have the X factor!
I also believe that people like Michael and Jill Back have the X factor, people who use their inherent skills and qualities to create/add a disproportionate amount of value to their groups, companies and societies. I would like to link this phenomenon to a theory by Robert E Quinn and Ryan Quinn, which is explained so eloquently in their book Lift.
First of all, these people have to be purpose driven. They have to have a mission in their lives, a sense of meaning that goes beyond the here and now. As Guy Kawasaki says, you have to make sense of it. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras refer to a higher order ideological/philosophical reason for their existence. These people are visionaries and they pursue this vision and dream with a tenacity that clearly sets them apart from others in society. People with the X factor, people with Lift, are purpose driven and stick to this purpose. Starbucks’ mission statement is a testament to this purpose to me: “Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one cup, one person, and one neighborhood at a time!”
Second, people with the X factor are other-oriented. They are empathic and emotionally intelligent. They realize that people are the most important element in a team, group, company and society. They realize that groups, teams, companies, and societies with a great culture and a compelling set of values held like a cult, are destined to be more successful than others. But they hold to these principles because they believe in them as a principle, and not for the financial benefit of them. If people fake this, it will be seen in difficult times, when the team, company or society is under pressure. It’s at times like this that the appearance disappears and the real person is seen!
Third, X factor people are internally directed. These people have an internal locus of control. They have a positive unconscious and know who and what they are. They have a sense of self worth and do not find their value in what other people think of them. They will stick to their principles and exhibit what is written in the previous paragraph. They practice what they preach and meet the person in the mirror. It could be said that they are also spiritually intelligent. They tend to be few and far between. They also tend to be Level 5 leaders in the parlance of Jim Collins’ “Good to Great.”
Finally, people with the X factor are also open to the outside. This refers to the principle that you need to be in tune with your external environment so as not to become irrelevant! You need to know who your customers are and what they want and need. You need to understand your competitors, your suppliers, the industry, and the macro environment. You need to understand the big picture, where you need to step in to create synergy. You need to be sensitive to the changes in this world, to be sensitive to the needs of society.
It is important that we have access to all four qualities. It is a multiplication exercise in which if we have zero for one, the other three become useless.
Organizations, teams and partnerships have no choice but to grow and develop their number of people with the X factor. We need to emulate and develop people with the properties of Michael and Jill Back, Gavin Cowley, Quade Cooper and others. We need them to stimulate and grow our societies, our organizations and our teams. Without them, the synergy effects and all the positive effects thereof will be impossible to obtain.
If this is what Michael and Jill Back could do, what are you doing? You don’t need to spend a million rand, but you can make a difference. You can make a contribution to society by developing your qualities, making sure you take advantage of the opportunities that come your way and become someone who aspires to be an X factor. Again, it’s a matter of choice. A choice to grow yourself and to make others grow.
Come on, break the chain and create elevator!