The What Happened Podcast

“Speak to people who are currently doing or have done what you want to do. It could be life altering.”
Ross Train joins us on the podcast for a look at what a day in the life of a City Planner/Urban Designer is like. Growing up, Ross had an interest in Archaeology which continued on into the geographical field. Ross has completed a Bachelor of Social Science degree (obtaining a 1st in his 3rd year), followed by a 1 year honours and is now completing his Masters in City and Regional Planning at UCT. When trying to decide whether to study City Planning or Environmental Science, Ross first asked the advice of 3 lecturers and 2 Masters students. We take a look at what happened.

Paul Simon joins us on the podcast for a look at what a day in the life of an Entrepreneur is like. Enrolling in a Clothing Production Management course at Cape Technicon, Paul completed 1 of the 3 years before working at GAP in the UK. Returning to South Africa he completed a fashion marketing course through IMM. While under fire at a family dinner, Paul formed the idea for YDE which he implemented with great success for 10 years before selling the business to Truworths in 2005. Founder of Über Flavour and now serial entrepreneur, Paul is introducing a new retail concept in the form of a department store based on the YDE model. We take a look at Paul’s impressive career to date.
“I don’t really believe that any 18 year old is absolutely positive about the direction that they are going to take in their life.”

“Being an entrepreneur is a personality trait. I don’t believe that you can teach somebody to be an entrepreneur. Effectively it is something that you are born with. If you are an extravert and an optimist then you possess some of the key personality traits of an entrepreneur.”

“You don’t have to be good at everything. My dad said my boy if you doing these kinds of numbers then you can afford to pay someone to tell you what it says on that balance sheet.”

“Experiential retail - creating an experience for the customer, people would come to the store regardless of whether they were going to buy something or not.”

“What would make me go to a store to buy a white t -shirt ? The answer is something else that happens in that store, other types of experiences.”

“I feel like so many people have just paid lip service to entrepreneurship in South Africa, they haven’t actually provided platforms for it to happen, and that is really what I envisage doing.”

“I challenge anyone to walk around any shopping centre, and tell me about something that was exciting in there.”

“Nothing was a waste of time, I learnt valuable lessons. I do see many people quit too soon.”

“The idea is not the valuable part, actually taking it and making it happen, that part is the difficult part.”

“There are millions of people out there with millions of ideas, there are only a handful that can take it from an idea and actually birth it.”

“I’ve seen people with great ideas just not give themselves sufficient runway to make it happen.”

“Try out as many industries as you can on your weekend job. The way to expedite finding out what you want to do is to have as many experiences as you can.”

“I expected too much after doing 2 years of fine art, I expected to be earning well quickly.”

“It’s hard to earn enough money from art, unless you are extremely famous.”

“An artist who has to earn their living from painting has to be far more productive, they have to put in the hours and churn out paintings.”
Pat Munro joins us on the podcast for a look at what a day in the life of an artist as well as a Managing Director is like.

Pat studied fine art for 2 years with the goal of becoming a commercial artist. In order to earn more, he instead entered into the engineering field with his first job starting at a metallurgical laboratory at the Ford motor company in PE. After working at Armstrong Hydraulics he joined an American company in the oil industry where he progressed to the position of Managing Director/President of South African operations.

After a 42 year period from 1965 to 2007 Pat returned to art, creating 45 paintings that went on exhibition in 2012. Now in retirement, Pat is a successful artist who believes that each of his two careers have taken place at the right times in his life. We take a look at what happened.

“You have to be flexible enough to change as technology and your career opportunities change.”
"As much as we think we can plan our lives, often circumstances determine what is going to happen.”

“There is no one path that is right or wrong for somebody.”

“Life is about opportunities and what roads become open to you. It’s not too late.”
Dr. Peter Barron joins us on the podcast for a look at what a day in the life of a public health specialist is like. Peter started his career studying accounting and during his 3rd year he decided that he would like to make a change. He continued with accounting, completing it in 5 years and lecturing in the subject for 1 year at UCT. While on a trip to Greece he considered his future and what he would like to do. At the age of 25 he started a career in medicine amongst a first year class of 18 year old students.

Peter completed medicine in 6 years. After completing his intern year in Windhoek he moved to the Eastern Cape where he took up paediatrics at the age of 32. He worked at a rural hospital for 3 years where he started to think about a better way to help the ever increasing number of out going patients.

Peter then specialized in public health for 4 years and by the age of 39, married with 2 children, he embarked on a career in public health, working for 5 years in primary health care in Khayelitsha.

Peter spent the bulk of his career working in primary health care in South Africa. In 1994 he began setting up the health department in the Northern Cape and followed this with 12 years in primary care at an NGO in Durban.

Peter began consulting, working in Kenya, Nigeria, India , Nepal , Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique and Senegal and also worked with the world health organization international NGOs.

In 2009 a new minister of health was appointed in South Africa and Peter took up a job in the national department working in Cape Town for 10 years. At the age of 69 he decided to retire from his role.

The final 5 years of Peter’s career included an involvement in mHealth, setting up MomConnect which is used by over 1.5 million women in South Africa during pregnancy.

We take a look back at this astounding career.

“If I could do the year of Business management and entrepreneurship at UCT again I would, it was a great course.”
Bjorn Train joins us on the podcast for a look at what a day in the life of a Project Manager is like. During his 3rd year of BCom Chartered Accounting he decided to change over to Honours in Business management and entrepreneurship at UCT. Bjorn has been working as a Manager at the Clay Café in Hout Bay and will move into a project manager role as they look to expand into the rest of South Africa. He also considered honours in finance, a bachelor in emergency medicine at UWC and FAPM (financial analysis and portfolio management). Bjorn’s other interests include emergency medicine and he has completed an ambulance assistant course, first aid courses, a stop the bleed course (treating life threatening injuries). Bjorn has been a volunteer wildland fire fighter for 3 years. He is currently looking into becoming a local reservist with the SAPS or a volunteer auxiliary law enforcement officer. Bjorn enrolled at Abbots College after matric taking maths, economics and business studies in order to improve his aggregate in order to gain entrance to UCT. We take a look at what happened.