Wealth & Business

In the world of golf, where greens stretch as far as the eye can see and fairways beckon enthusiasts, the age-old challenge has always been securing a tee time at the right course.

Golfers, both seasoned and newcomers, often find themselves frustrated with the booking process. However, in today’s digital age, innovative technologies are reshaping the landscape of golf bookings, making it not only 10 times faster but also more profitable for golf course owners.

CELEBRATING IMPERFECTION AND SEEING BEAUTY IN THAT IMPERFECTION That is the simplified way of wabi-sabi, an ancient Japanese philosophy. This is also the foundation of my work to bring Heart in the Boardroom. In my keynotes and sessions, I put a lot of emphasis on embracing our messy, imperfect selves. Because I strongly believe if we can find the courage of looking our imperfections in the eye, we are also able to feel more compassion and less judgmental of the natural flaws of others. Courage comes from the French word Coeur, which means heart. In a simplified way, wabi-sabi can be described as thinking of celebrating natural imperfections and seeing a certain beauty in that imperfection. The wisdom of honouring the authentic beauty of the unusual and accepting that nothing is permanent in life. It is the same with people. I always gravitate towards people who have endured. I instantly recognize their suffering and feel empathy for the cracks caused by their painful journey You may have heard about Kintsugi, the repairing of cracks in ceramics with gold. In Japanese culture, you can find Kintsugi art (“golden repair”) – which is the art of repairing broken ceramics with gold powder. This resonates with me as to how I look at people. Kintsugi often makes the repaired piece even more beautiful than the original, reviving it with a new life. This way of repair celebrates the unique history of each artefact by emphasizing its breakages, cracks, or even missing parts instead of hiding or disguising them. Sharing our unique histories and our ‘human cracks’ in a team at work, in a group of peers, or in a golf team is extremely powerful. And transformational. Realizing that we are not the only ones fighting a silent battle or doubting ourselves. Experiencing the true story of each team member is glueing a team at a deeply personal level. Imagine what conversations like this will ignite the heart of your golf team! We must learn to be brave to share what is really going on in our lives and what hunts us at night. Recognizing certain beauty in the imperfection in others is accepting the beauty of our own. It is my purpose to create such safety in a group or in personal conversations, where people finally find the courage to come out of hiding and let down their armour. The feeling is often described as liberation and eye-opening. How often do I see women in golf, hiding behind their armour? They show up at the tee box anxious to fail. It is blocking a relaxed team spirit and it takes the fun out of the game due to excessive pressure and unrealistic high expectations. Embrace the fact that you are nowhere near perfect Show up at the 1st tee box with the purpose to have fun and to enjoy the company of other lovely perfectly imperfect women. They might not be there yet mentally to lift the heavy shield of armour, but you are! Monique Landman is the Chief Empathy Officer and the founder of Unchain People & Change. It is her purpose to bring her heart into the boardroom and unchain humanity in organizations. Her motivational talks and empathetic leadership programs take her to clients around the world. Monique loves to play golf and many of her clients in South Africa are examples of golf industry excellence. She and her husband have shared a passion for South Africa since 1999.

WELCOME 2023 – Let it a be a good year to ignite our hearts! Over the holidays most of us looked back at 2022 with a heavy heart. It was a tough year and we all thought and hoped for a lighter and brighter year. But hello 2023! THE GOOD NEWS & THE BAD NEWS The bad news – Is that we can’t change things that are out of our control. We can’t change how other people behave. The good news – Is that we can learn how to navigate our challenges better and we can control how we show up in life. We always have a choice how we respond to others. I like to think we have learned from the past years about what matters most to us. What we need as human beings. And I hope that you are more aware of what you need to feel loved and appreciated. Because if you have moved a little closer to yourself and developed more self-awareness and self-compassion, this will always organically translate into kinship for others. THE NEED TO BELONG We all want to feel a sense of belonging to a group, a family, a tribe, maybe a church or a golf team. To be connected at a deeper heart level. To belong means that you can be you. Your beautiful perfectly imperfect self. Do not mistake this for fitting in. I love the work of Brené Brown and in her recent Atlas of the Heart she describes “to belong is to be you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else” . To belong is to be accepted for who you are. If I get to be me, I belong. If I have to be like you, I fit in. I love the work of Brené Brown and in her recent Atlas of the Heart she describes “to belong is to be you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else” . To belong is to be accepted for who you are. If I get to be me, I belong. If I have to be like you, I fit in. If we experience the freedom of being ourselves, we feel free and liberated of the pressure of pretending. If we don’t have to hide behind our shields, our armor anymore, we come out of hiding. When you show you, people will love you more. The more we connect at that heart level, we feel braver, and it is giving ourselves permission to mess up, to laugh at our mistakes and to have compassion when others mess up.

By Monique Landman Never has there been so much media attention for our mental health. And there is a reason for it. I often start my keynotes with the bold statement: “We are all currently running on empty”Many of us are at the end of our resources and our stretch for flexibility and adaptability is no longer endless. This leads directly to short fuses and less tolerance. We are hyper, digitally, connected but simultaneously very disconnected. We have lost the connection with our hearts, our feelings, with our community and from living in the moment. There is so much loneliness, anxiety and depression amongst us. And we don’t even know. The stigma on mental health does not contribute to speaking up either. We don’t know about the silent battles we all fight. Especially women in business. Known for just keeping on going and pulling it through regardless. Believe me, I know. In my life I have suffered two serious depressions and worked so hard to overcome them. It was heartbreaking.For the past two and half years, many people have been operating on survival mode. On constant fight and flight modus. Best compared to being an impala on the open Kalahari Vlei. Constantly looking for danger. Our brains are wired to look for danger and threat. Being in a state where our fear and feelings control our behavior instead of being more in control of our responses. If we learn to become more aware of our triggers and our habitual patterns, we also learn to control them better. If we can acknowledge what we feel when somebody triggers a reaction in us, we can use the magic of the pause. The pause between reaction and how we respond. In that moment, understanding what you are going through, is such a powerful skill. If you can emphasize that maybe that conflict is more about their internal struggle and maybe not about you, you can learn grace and kindness. Monique Landman is Chief Empathy Officer and the founder of Unchain People & Change. It is her purpose to bring heart into the boardroom and unchain humanity in organizations. Her motivational talks and empathetic leadership programs take her to clients around the world. Monique loves to play golf and many of her clients in South Africa are examples of golf industry excellence. She and her husband have shared a passion for South Africa since 1999.

My dad always allowed us to play with him as long as we didn’t slow the game down. My first golf experience was on oil greens with very little grass on the fairways.

The financial services industry is one in which money can be made – but not always for the investor – so caution is the watchword.
We’ve all heard stories of entire pensions being handed over to wolves in suits; of clients’ life savings being used to pay out other investors in Ponzi-like schemes; of unrealistically high returns; of ‘performance’ bonuses to advisors, regardless of whether they’ve ‘performed’ or not.

Creating wealth is far easier than golf in my opinion – and it doesn’t come from getting to grips with complex financial equations. The key is simplicity. Finance is an industry that loves complexity. I often see my clients’ eyes glaze over as I rabbit on about moderate and stable funds and capital and income quotes, forgetting that what’s all in a day’s work to me isn’t necessarily going to make sense to a professional sports person, or a pre-school teacher, for example. Keep it straight and simple. There’s no secret to wealth creation and novice investors do not need to take risks.