Ruda headed up our recent Connection Session, held on 18 September. The event’s topic was How to create your own Big Break. Leaps of faith, life hacks, shortcuts and advice from some who have made their ow n way. Over a delicious cheese-and-wine spread, our inimitable Change Agents, journalist Ruda Landman, businesswomen Adelaide Matlejoane and Kurisani Maswanganyi, and of course, Gareth Cliff, shared their personal experiences and sage advice with our entrepreneurial audience. Watch this space for more out-takes from this awesome event.
Here’s a slightly adapted transcript from the video:
I was 32 when Netwerk went on air – live. It was the first live actuality show in the country. And there I was, a little girl… I felt like – and remember – I’m the youngest in a family of three older brothers, who, as I say, never made me feel like the princess.
There I was, live on air, having to challenge white men who all looked like my dad. And I had to fake it until I made it. I literally would wake up in the middle of the night, sitting up in bed going [hyperventilating], having dreamt that I was on a one-on-one with someone and he would finish speaking and the camera was on me and I didn’t have a clue. It was unbelievable – talk about stress!
And my other recurring dream, nightmare, was that I was on a beam… I was on a beam that was swung out on a top of a building, from a crane, over nothing. And it was just me and there was a spotlight.
That is the other side of being ‘known’ and working in the public eye and all those things that people think are so glamorous.
So that was the first thing: I had to overcome my father’s voice in my head.
The second thing I had to overcome was I had to learn that it’s not about me. That even though you are the face and people recognise you in the street and suddenly in 1985 – there I was, you know, called first lady of TV, Sunday Times cover, Sarie cover, blah, blah, blah… It’s not about me – it’s about the story. Because if you start thinking it’s about yourself it’s like watching your feet when you’re trying to dance. You fall very quickly!
It’s a weird kind of contradiction that you have to hold and I think our environment it may be more pronounced, but I think if you’re the boss the same thing is true. That you become so important, and as soon as you join in in that belief, you can only go one way and that’s down.
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