It’s More Than Just Money

By Witness Mdaka

A masterclass in building something out of nothing. It's More Than Just Money is a guide and tool to help you escape the rat-race and build generational wealth for you and your family. The book is a practical guide. You may probably already know some of the ideas in this book, but here they are presented in a way that is easy to understand. Whether you are a seasoned investor, a CEO, or just a young person starting out in your journey, you will find the 60 concepts outlined in this book simple to put into practice.

Among many other things, the book will teach you:
How to start and grow your property investment portfolio.
The easiest way to start and grow a business while you are employed.
How to create and safeguard wealth for the next generation, even if you are not yet rich.
How to use relationships as capital for your business.
How to create passive income and get paid even if you are not putting in the hours.
Business, Property, and Shares.
How to discover your purpose in alignment with making money.
How to develop an entrepreneurial mindset
How to develop your personal balance sheet

Witness Mdaka is the Founder and CEO of Quality Growth International, a dynamic property investment, development, and management company. A property investor, visionary leader, writer, and successful businessman in his own right. Mdaka started his career in the property industry in 2008 when his mother, to fund his studies, built backrooms at their family home in Tembisa, South Africa, and told him (then 18 years old) to “look after the investment so that he can fund his university studies”. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree with a double major in Marketing and Strategic Management from Midrand Graduate Institute (Pearson Institute of Higher Education), a Certificate in Global Business from Regent College in London, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Project Management from Mancosa (Management College of Southern Africa). Mdaka is passionate about helping young Africans unearth their potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Witness Mdaka
• Release date: Oct 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005022945

Book preview

Significance is Calling,

Will You Answer?

You might not realise this, but the desire you have to be important, or to be recognised, is a God-given desire. In trying to get people not to overly pursue their self-interest, religion, and sometimes politics, has conditioned people to be okay with being mediocre, and to be grateful for what they have, and not desire more – as long as they have shelter, clothing, and food.

This type of false humility must be challenged at every turn because the desire for wanting to be significant is a normal desire. The best way to keep people impoverished is to get them to accept the conditions they are in and have them convinced that there is no use for them to want more out life.

To get out of where you are now, and to get to a higher and better place for your life, you must desire the higher things. You must dream of better, imagine better, and desire to be of importance – because you are. Significance is the quality of being worthy of attention or importance. You really need to understand that no matter how insignificant you feel you are, you actually play a large role, firstly for yourself, your family, your community, your country, and then for the world at large.

To be significant, you really need to connect with your purpose, and ask yourself basic questions like: Who am I? Where am I from? What am I doing here? And where am I going?

It’s also going to be important for you to get to understand what makes you tick as a person. It could be what makes you angry and what makes you excited. Your purpose is usually tied to these two things – things that excite you and things that aggravate you.

Seek out solutions for the things that aggravate or annoy you. You could be aggravated by poverty… instead of complaining about it, why not work out a plan to eliminate it? You could be excited about the idea of becoming a doctor, starting a business, becoming a singer. So why not execute on these or whatever other desires you have? Your level of significance will be tied to the number of people you touch throughout your existence, and you can only use your gift, and your life’s work to touch people.

Desire greatness, desire significance, but always remember that it is tied to the number of people you serve with your gift… also desire to be rich, especially if you grew up in a poor family or community. Let the idea of building wealth for yourself, your family, and your community excite you… Significance is calling, will you answer?

Your World Exists First in Your Head: It’s All ABOUT the Mindset.

Certain things are exceedingly difficult to change once they have been set. Take concrete for instance; if concrete is soft and unset, you can move it around, change its position and even create designs with it. But once concrete is set then it is set, there is nothing you can do about it.

Mindset is a lot like concrete. Remember when you were young and naive—well maybe not so naive, but remember when you were willing to explore concepts and ideas, when you believed that you could accomplish anything and become anything you wanted to become? This is when your mind was not yet set on certain things like fear, failure, and doubt. When did you decide that all those things you believed were possible are not possible anymore?

I’ll tell you what happened. Like soft concrete, a mind (any mind however bright) eventually gets set on something. Just like you would change and move concrete and create designs with it while it is still soft, you didn’t change, design, and frame your mind according to what you believed your life could be like while you still could. You succumbed to fear and allowed your mind to be set around the impossible rather than what is possible for you. Maybe you even have the dangerous mindset that says, I know it all, meanwhile we all know that no one really knows it all and no one really is bigger than everyone. Not only that, maybe you even told yourself that this will never change, it’s who you are – but the truth is, this is not who you are, it can change. The human brain is not concrete, it is like concrete – figuratively – but it is not concrete, it can be rewired.

Let me tell you something else, maybe something that might shock you: entrepreneurship is not all about having an office, selling goods or services, and having customers – it is a mindset. If you look for a job in a certain company, and they hire you as an administrator, the company can decide how much your salary will be, but the company will never decide for you how much you make, what your income will be – that is up to you. Your mindset in that instance can tell you that what you get from the company is all you will ever make, or it can inform you that you can set up other streams of income using the same salary that you receive from the employer.

People have different mindsets, although not all of them are progressive. Some believe that someone else—a company, an employer is responsible for how much you make, while some understand that no company will ever determine how much you make, you can determine that for yourself by rendering additional services or sell something outside of your normal employ – it’s all about the mindset.

Mindset will determine how you behave at work, church, at a party or social gathering… everywhere. When you see someone act in a certain way, just know it’s because of their mindset – people either have a progressive mindset or a backward mindset, and some have foolish confidence – believing they know it all, when they know they don’t.

Don’t Start Unless

You Have Finished

What would be the best time to start building your house? What would be the best time to quit your job and start a business? These are the questions that many people are battling to answer. The examples given here are not necessarily tied only to building a house or a business, but rather to starting and finishing anything.

So, the simple truth in answering these questions is this: don’t start building your house (or anything else for that matter) unless you have it finished. Finish it then start.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it —  lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,  saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?  Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Luke 14:28-31.

In my journey in business, I’ve met plenty of aspiring entrepreneurs who’ve said to me, Hey, I’m starting a business, I’ll be leaving my job soon. Then comes the question: what is your game plan? And then the person looks at me as if I am a dream killer.

Here’s the thing: business, just like anything else in life, requires planning and commitment. Unless you have worked on your blueprint, and you at least have an idea in which direction you are going and where you’ll end up, then you cannot start. If you start your journey without knowing where you are going then you might end up where you don’t want to be.

Before building the hotel, sit down draw up the plans, lay out the rooms, calculate the cost, and if you can bear the cost – start. Finish it first, then start it. It would be insane to start laying bricks without knowing why you’re doing so.

Be purposeful with every step you make. Success is not haphazard; success knows what it’s doing. Remember that.

80% Mindset &

Strategy, 20% Skill

We spend a lot of time sharpening our skills, from going to school and university to attending short courses to upskill ourselves to be successful with our work. Although these are good and necessary things to do, they form only a small part of our success compared to the mindset we have, and our attitude, which ultimately determines the strategies we apply to successfully execute our skills.

Everything will always boil down to mindset. Entrepreneurship is a mindset. Moneymaking is a mindset. Poverty is a mindset. My grandma was a street sweeper for many years working for the City of Joburg Municipality. At some point I remember her getting paid a little less than R2000.00 for her job, but she made over R15000.00 every month selling beer.

Our house in Alexandra used to be filled with people. She made more money than my mother who had a more prestigious job as a nurse. Her mindset was different.

She retired to a house she built by herself. I rented out her property in Alex. My mother never paid Black Tax. My grandma is over 86 years old now and still lends money to people at a reasonable interest rate. She cannot read nor write, but she will never be poor. This is only because she does not see herself as a charity case. She still believes that she has the responsibility of looking after herself.

I guess in all this, we also must have a basic understanding of how the mind works. I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine who is doing very well for himself in the property industry; we were talking about how the mind works. He said this to me: The mind only works with what you give it. It does not even know whether it is day or night, it believes whatever you tell it. And that is why I work till one in the morning six days a week, because to me, it’s always morning.

He basically tells himself that every hour of the day is morning. When he greets anyone, or receives a phone call, at any hour of the day, he says, Good morning. I found that interesting because this man has discovered the power of making his mind align with his beliefs, even if his beliefs are not particularly true according to what might be perceived as ‘normal’.

An employee will say, This is all I make. An entrepreneur will say, No, this is all I make from my job, but I can make more by using my salary as capital to start a business. So, I must look after my boss’s business so that he can continue paying me the capital I need to grow my income. It’s your mindset that pushes you to either find ways to change your circumstances or be satisfied with the status quo.

Our mindset forms our world view, our world view determines how we see things, and how we see things is how we ultimately plan anything we set out to do. One of the biggest things we will have to learn to do while upgrading our skills is learning how to think correctly. How we think about something informs the strategy we apply.

When it comes to any work, project, or business, 80% of it will be about the way we think about the work, our mindsets, and our strategy, while 20% will be based on the skills we need in order to successfully execute what we have set out to do.

There are several ways to determine your mindset, but here are three examples:

1. What Spectacles Are You Wearing?

This question can simply be translated to: What do you see? Often what we see might not necessarily be what everyone sees. A person wearing blue sunglasses only sees blue, the one wearing orange sunglasses only sees in orange, while the one wearing clear spectacles only sees what is clear. Understanding why you see what you see, and why others see what they see helps you think about your strategy in an enlightened manner – know the colour of your spectacles. What is your worldview?

2. What Are You Reading?

It is said that if you spend five years reading business books then you might become an expert on the topic. I couldn’t agree more with this saying. Whatever you give yourself to will give itself back to you. Most often, people who are filled with fear are people who have spent countless hours listening to, watching, or reading negative news reports. Someone who is fearful will develop a strategy that is motivated by fear and scarcity. Someone who has focused their attention on material that inspires greatness in them, material that gives them hope about the world we live in will formulate a strategy that lines up with that hope. The skills these two people acquire, and the manner in which they execute their work, will differ dramatically; in fact, they will produce completely different results simply because of the material they read or listen to. The books we read have a way of influencing the way we think. So, choosing the right material to read, will dictate how we view things, how we develop our strategy and ultimately, how we execute our skills.

3. Who is Surrounding You?

Another saying I’ve heard often is: You are who you hang out with. The people we spend time with, the conversations we have, form our worldviews. Careful consideration of who you spend time with will help you determine what goes into your heart. Have you ever met anyone who is bold and positive, but yet spends 90% of their time with negative people? That is rare isn’t it? Same applies to you; you will have to choose your associations carefully if you want to win at anything. If you want to be successful, at anything, then find yourself a successful mentor and surround yourself with positive, successful peers. Here’s an interesting saying I’ve heard: If you want to be a doctor, accountant or engineer, go to university. But if you want to become a millionaire, then find someone who has done it and emulate them.

How you do anything, is how you do everything. Think about this. Eighty percent is mindset and strategy, while 20% is skill. Work on getting your skills but remember that 80% of achieving success will depend on your strategy, which is informed by your mindset, which is determined by your thinking.

What is Chasing You?

What Are You Chasing?

You might not realise this, but you are running, we are all running, either towards something, or away from something.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running. – Christopher McDougall.

Have you ever wondered what it is that pushes young Africans to risk death trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe? The answer is that many of them are running away from something, something they believe is worse than drowning in the sea. They are not really pulled by the life they envision themselves living in Europe, but they are pushed by the harsh realities they face in their respective countries or regions.

As a young South African, I am running away from something myself – poverty, life in the township, the stereotypes surrounding black people, stereotypes attached to children who grew up without a father figure – the truth is that we are all running, and we are running for different reasons.

Each morning, I realise that I must keep running, lest my background catches up with me, and I also realise that I must keep running lest my future elude me. See, the lion’s dream each morning is to run faster than the slowest gazelle, and the gazelle’s ambition is to live and run in such a way that it escapes the lion. The gazelle’s whole existence depends on its ability to outrun the fastest lion. On the other hand, the lion’s existence depends on its ability to outrun the slowest gazelle.

We human beings have a combination of both the lion and

Reviews for It’s More Than Just Money

[Ayanda Mulaudzi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is so good, I learnt a lot about property from, I just wish to meet the writer so that I can learn more

[Phalee Branzilu Sello · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book and recommend all people to read it. It's very mind stimulating and has challenged me to do even more in my businesses

[Nhlakanipho Good enough · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

if you can take this information put in action you will go far ,highly recommend this book

[lerato · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mind transforming indeed.My mind has been stretched and will never return to its original state.

[Gillian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am still and have the desire to go into property investment, this book has laid down the foundation needed and I must say, a great book Bro Witty, thank you for the information and knowledge. Thank you.