Light in the Darkness: Inspirational South African Entrepreneurs’ Advice for Success

The legacy of apartheid is still apparent in South Africa and with adeclining growth rate and a chronically high unemployment rate, the challengesfaced by entrepreneurs are considerable. Despite these significant constraints,a notable number of successful previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs haveemerged. This phenomenological study contributes to the emerging researchin this area by not only drawing on the challenges faced by these specificentrepreneurs but also showcases their inspirational advice on how they overcamethese challenges. Insights as to whether they believe entrepreneurship can betaught were also obtained. The findings provide guidance to nascent entrepreneursin the form of a road-map of competencies that they can benchmark themselvesagainst before embarking on the entrepreneurship journey. Recommendationsfor policy makers for formulating interventions to stimulate entrepreneurship inSouth Africa, but also in other developing countries, are also provided.