I wasn’t always the person who walks into rooms with confidence.
There was a version of me that was quiet. Unsure. A young man from Johannesburg who was trying to figure out whether he belonged in spaces that didn’t look like they were built for him.
That person became a Master Property Practitioner. A multi-award-winning CEO. The founder of Dragon Pride Realty — a business that has supported over 30 stakeholders, closed countless property deals, and touched thousands of lives across South Africa.
But the numbers are not the story. The story is the distance between who I was and who I became — and everything that happened in between.
Where it started
I started as an intern. Watching. Learning. Absorbing everything I could about an industry that was largely unfamiliar to people from my background. There were very few young Black faces at the top of property in South Africa. There still aren’t enough.
That fact could have discouraged me. Instead, it became my fuel.
If the representation wasn’t there, I would become it. Not for the title — but because I knew that every person who made it to the top and turned around to reach back down changes the equation for the next generation.
What building Dragon Pride Realty actually looked like
It wasn’t a straight line. No business ever is.
There were deals that didn’t close, relationships that needed to be rebuilt, and internal challenges that tested everything I thought I knew about leadership. There were moments of genuine self-doubt — the same timidness that followed me from early in my career didn’t disappear overnight.
But here’s what I learned: you don’t overcome self-doubt by eliminating it. You overcome it by acting in spite of it. Repeatedly. Until the action becomes louder than the fear.
What’s next
Dragon Pride Realty continues to grow. But what excites me most right now is what’s beyond the business — the non-profit we are preparing to launch, aimed at uplifting communities and creating real, lasting change in people’s lives.
Because this was never just about property. It was never just about wealth creation for its own sake. It was always about transformation — proving that where you start does not determine where you finish, and building structures that give more people access to that proof.
The message
You’re not too young. You’re not too early. And you’re definitely not too small.
Whatever you’re building — start. The version of you that exists on the other side of that decision is waiting.