/tacanderson

A year and a half ago I had the great pleasure to take my first trip to Africa. I was there to open Waggener Edstrom's new office in Johannesburg, South Africa. You can read all of my posts from that trip here. 

In the last 4 months coming from the states I've been in London, England; Munich, Germany; Edinburgh, Scotland; Paris, France and now Johannesburg, South Africa (or as the locals call it: Joburg or Jozi), and of all the locations Joburg gets me the most excited. 

Joburg is not a prime tourist location; it's a huge city in the middle of the desert with no large body of water. There's not much "to do" compared to the other locations. There are not a lot of cool art museums, theaters or the usual things you see in the other places. The place also has its problems. It's still very much a developing market. But Joburg has something the others don't.

Everyone I meet with is super optimistic. The entrepreneurs there are amazing. The people believe in their community and know that there isn't anything they can't do. I got to see several areas under urban renewal. There was loads of culture unlike you'll see anywhere else.

The people are also incredibly open about what's working and what's not. They talk openly about race and poverty and corruption but they do so with an attitude that tells you they believe these are fixable problems, even if they don't totally know how they'll fix them. 

They aren't afraid to try and fail and try again. In these ways they're very American and as I talked with people there, they do self-identify more with America than Europe. Not that they think America is perfect nor do they want to emulate everything about America but they've caught the entrepreneurial spirit in a big way. 

My advice is to watch South Africa closely. With only 12-15% of their population online, they've got a ways to go but the one's that aren't online are still doing some impressive stuff and the ones that aren't online are still very much "connected" with their mobile phones and SMS. 

South Africa gets it.