By Alec Hogg
The best part of my job is that, by definition, you get to interact with society’s outliers. Often it’s a fleeting moment, that fifteen minutes of fame we all enjoy at some point. But sometimes it becomes more, and that’s because they are special. In this trade, repeat customers get chosen because of their value to the audience we serve.
Adrian Gore is one of my favourite repeat customers. I’ve gotten to know the co-founder of Discovery over the years. Having built a R100bn global business, everyone knows he’s a world class entrepreneur. From what I’ve experienced, he’s SA’s Elon Musk of financial services, but a much, much nicer person.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___Some members of our tribe find Gore an easy target. During the pandemic, he was singled out for attack by those who claimed COVID was nothing worse than a ‘mild flu’. Gore’s also lumped among a group of ‘Compliant Big Business’ executives branded as ANC appeasers because of trying to make a difference at the coal face.
Gore rises above all that. His reaction to this criticism, raised during our interview yesterday: “Look, I think criticism is healthy. We need to answer to it.” But “I think it’s a cognitive error to believe letting the country fail is a better solution. The concept that things can fail and then we’ll pick it up – I’m not convinced it’s that linear”.
See what I mean? A class act is our super entrepreneur Adrian Gore.
Sterkte
Alec
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