The Valley Below
The meetings can wait. The emails can wait. But the small moments with my kids out here, that’s what lasts.
A Thought on Victimism.
Stop playing the victim.
We live in an age where blame has become currency.
The economy.
The system.
AI.
The algorithms.
The endless parade of "what ifs."
It’s easier than ever to freeze. To rationalize inaction because the world feels like it's shifting beneath your feet. Entire industries are vanishing overnight. Jobs are being rewritten by code. The ground feels unstable.
And so people wait.
They wait for someone to tell them it’s safe again. For a guarantee that will never come.
So it comes down to, you either happen to life, or life happens to you.
The systems you’re afraid to step outside of?
They were built for a world that no longer exists, a world of stable paychecks, 40-year careers, and neatly packaged retirements. That scaffolding has collapsed. The new game rewards those who move fast.
The ones winning aren’t smarter.
They’re simply willing to place bets on themselves.
Willing to face the discomfort.
Willing to move while others sit and analyze.
If there’s an idea in you. Start.
If there’s a change you’ve been afraid to make. Move.
If there’s a book, a business, a hard conversation, or a new chapter. Step into it.
Your future self is already watching.
And years from now, it will either be grateful you moved or haunted that you didn’t.
Worried someone else already did it?
Irrelevant.
Uber wasn’t first.
They were just better.
There’s always room for better.
This is your permission slip:
Wake up earlier.
Send the email.
Make the call.
Pitch the idea.
Take the swing.
Fail, learn, swing again.
No one is coming to save you. But you?
You’ve always had the power to save yourself.
You just have to start.
100 Ways to Live a Better Life by Jacques
We’ll mark off the topic we covered the previous week.
FinanceLove
Family
Health
Lifestyle
Community
Spirituality
Philanthropy
Adventure
Discomfort
This week, we’re moving on to Family. Whilst family always remains a challenge, remember to be grateful for the place you find yourself in. There are people out there who would give everything they have to sit around the same table you do every night.
Family.
1. Lead Your Family Like You Lead Your Business
You have strategy meetings, goals, and performance reviews at work. Why does your family get the leftovers? Set vision. Create rhythms. Build traditions.
Lead your family with the same intentionality you lead your company, or someone else will lead them for you.
2. Protect the Table
Family dinners are the operating system where trust is built, kids are heard, and spouses stay aligned.
Phones off. TV off. Presence on.
Protect the table, it’s where your family learns to talk, listen, and belong.
3. Fix Your Marriage First
Your kids feel every crack, even the ones you think you hide. If your marriage is fractured, don’t hide behind "doing it for the kids."
Heal the marriage. Prioritize the partnership.
Healthy parents raise stable kids.
It starts there.
4. Say Yes More Often
Your kids don’t need more money.
They need your yes.
Yes to playing catch.
Yes to reading one more story.
Yes to answering their weird questions.
Yes to being interrupted.
You’re building memories. One “yes” at a time.
5. Build Family Traditions, Not Just Memories
Anyone can have one-off vacations. What your kids crave is predictability.
Family game night. Sunday walks. Holiday rituals.
Traditions create safety. Safety creates trust.
Trust creates unbreakable families.
6. Be the Emotional Anchor
Life throws storms at every family. Your job is not to panic.
Your job is to steady the boat. When your family looks at you during a crisis, be the calm in the chaos.
That’s real leadership.
7. Choose Family Over Hustle
You will be tempted to trade time for opportunity. Choose wisely.
Your business can survive without you for a weekend.
Your child’s soccer game only happens once.
Regret always shows up late.
8. Raise Adults, Not Dependents
Your job is not to create kids who need you forever. Your job is to raise confident, capable adults who don’t. Give them responsibility. Let them fail. Teach them consequence.
The world isn’t soft. Neither should you be.
9. Model What You Preach
Kids don’t do what you say. They do what you model.
You want them to be kind? Be kind.
You want them to read? Read.
You want them to pursue big lives? Then live one in front of them.
10. Make Home Their Safe Place
The world is brutal. Your home should be the place where they can fall apart without fear. No judgment. No shame. Just unconditional belonging.
They’ll face enough critics. Don’t be one of them.
3 Things Worth Sharing
1. The Valley Below
This week, between meetings and travel, I managed a quick trip back to the farm, but this one felt a little different.
My father, my son, and my daughter were with me as we drove through the bush, looking for something to stalk up on. We stopped on a ridge where the land opened wide beneath us, that quiet kind of wide where the bushveld holds its breath before night settles in.
My son and I climbed up a narrow ravine to glass into the valley while my daughter stayed back in the truck with her grandfather. The two of us stood there for a while, just listening. The air was cool. The shadows long. The kind of moment you don’t orchestrate, you just find yourself in it.
It took me right back to the long walks I used to take with my dad at that same age. And now, I get to watch my son start his version of that journey. There’s a lot he still has to learn out here, about the land, the animals, the dangers, and the patience that only nature teaches, but that’s the beauty of it.
The long game isn’t just raising kids. It’s watching them grow into the same trails you once followed.
2. Kouga News: The Next Chapter in Local Journalism
I'm thrilled to announce the launch of Kouga News, the first in a series of ventures we're rolling out in South Africa this year. Kouga News is not just a website, but the start of building a newsroom for the Kouga region. With so many local outlets gone, our mission is clear: deliver hyper-local, independent, unfiltered news that serves this community with truth and relevance.
The platform is live, the team is growing, and this is only the beginning.
3. ElevenLabs v3
ElevenLabs dropped v3, and it’s staggering.
70+ languages. Multi-speaker dialogue. Full emotional nuance: [whispers], [sighs], [laughs], you name it.
What used to cost businesses hundreds of thousands in voice talent and studio time can now be done at scale for pennies.
This is exactly the kind of rapid evolution that makes me double down on my “do it today” philosophy: The tools are here. The excuses aren’t.
Question I’m Pondering
What part of my father’s example am I still carrying and should I be?
Legacy is both blessing and baggage. The question is: what gets passed on next?
Until Next Time
Families aren’t built on grand moments.
They’re built in the quiet.
Slow walks.
Patient conversations.
Small lessons that stack up into legacy.
Next week, we move into Health, where discipline, longevity, and ownership collide.
The body keeps score. It’s time to start listening.
– Jacques
P.S. If you enjoyed this, share it with someone who thinks like you.
Check out other things I’m busy with:
We Edit Podcasts — A full-service B2B podcasting agency that helps brands turn listeners into customers.
Hunting Portal — Your next hunting adventure starts here. Outfitters, taxidermists, gear heads, and more.
Halalisana — We help township-based businesses grow, scale, and thrive in South Africa. We offer conferencing, co-working, and a coding academy.
Kouga News — Hyper-local. Independent. Unfiltered News.
More coming soon.