Avid Energy

15/05/2026

When the storm exposes the roots

The Western Cape has taken a serious beating.

After two severe Level 8 storms, George lost more than a thousand trees. At George Golf Club alone, 263 trees came down — many of them old, beautiful trees that helped define one of the Western Cape’s most respected courses.

What made it worse was the sequence.

First came the rain and flooding.
The ground became saturated.
The roots weakened.
Then the wind arrived.

And suddenly, trees that had stood for decades could not hold anymore.

Business works the same way.

Most businesses do not collapse because of one storm. They fall when the ground underneath has already been weakened — and then pressure arrives.

Cash-flow stress.
Supply-chain delays.
Fuel price shocks.
Geopolitical instability.
Late payments.
Stock shortages.
A sudden drop in demand.

We saw it with the Russia–Ukraine war and its effect on energy and logistics. We see it again whenever global instability pushes oil prices, freight costs, and delivery timelines in the wrong direction.

The real question is not whether storms will come.

They will.

The question is:

**How strong are your roots before they arrive?**

In business, those roots are your systems, supplier relationships, cash-flow discipline, team culture, customer communication, and leadership under pressure.

Storms destroy — but they also reveal.

They reveal weak structures.
They reveal poor planning.
They reveal leadership gaps.
They also create opportunity for contractors, service providers, local businesses, and communities willing to rebuild smarter.

George will carry the scars of this storm for a long time.

But scars are also proof of survival.

Whether it is a town, a golf course, a supply chain, or a business — resilience is not built when the storm arrives.

It is built long before.

And when the next storm comes, the roots will tell the truth.

08/05/2026

05/05/2026

I came across a story recently about an entrepreneur who went from being a kiddie pool attendant to building a business that did $5B in sales in just seven years.

What’s interesting isn’t the scale — it’s the starting point.

He didn’t know how to raise millions.
He didn’t know how to navigate regulatory approvals.
He didn’t have the full roadmap.

And that’s exactly the point.

If he had tried to solve the entire problem upfront, the business likely would have never started.

Instead, the approach was simple:
What’s the first step?
Get that done.
What’s the next step?
Move forward again.

No over-engineering. No paralysis.

Just progress.

There’s a hard truth in business:
It’s rarely the most “qualified” or “prepared” people who build something meaningful.

It’s the ones willing to move before they feel ready.

The ones comfortable operating without full certainty.
The ones who break complexity into action.

And in many ways, this mirrors what we see in high-level sales and business strategy today — the shift away from trying to control everything, toward creating momentum through clarity, step by step.

Not chasing outcomes.
Building toward them.

*****on

20/04/2026

Two famous problems.
Unsolved for years.
The best minds in the world couldn’t crack them.

Then a student named George Dantzig walked into class late.

He saw the two problems on the board and assumed they were homework. So he went home… and solved them.

Only later did he realise the truth — they weren’t homework. They were considered “impossible.”

Think about that.

He didn’t solve them because he was smarter than everyone else.
He solved them because he didn’t know he couldn’t.

How many things do we label as “impossible” before we’ve even tried?

Sometimes the biggest limitation isn’t the problem…
it’s what we believe about the problem.

15/04/2026

Success is a funny thing… we all chase it, but how do you actually define it?

Sometimes it looks like 10 years of grinding, sacrificing, and pushing through when nobody sees the effort. The kind of years where it feels like you’re “eating glass” just to keep going.

And then… one year changes everything.

One year where all that unseen work compounds. Where doors open, momentum hits, and suddenly you do more than you did in the previous ten.

That’s the part people don’t talk about enough.

Success isn’t overnight. It’s built quietly, patiently, and often painfully… until one day it shows up loud.

So how do YOU define success? Gert Claassens Hertz Engineering Ltd

13/04/2026

Wall Street Wisdom: Selling Decisions, Not Products

Ever wondered what truly sets apart a great salesperson? It's not about aggressive tactics or pushing products, but about becoming a trusted advisor who helps clients make the right decisions.

We recently watched an insightful interview with a seasoned Wall Street salesman who shared his profound philosophy: "Sell to Help." He argues that the best in the business don't just chase commissions; they make their client's problems their own, focusing on solutions and building lasting relationships. This approach, he explains, leads to genuine success and avoids burnout.

In a world often associated with cutthroat competition, this perspective offers a refreshing take on the art of persuasion and service. It's about understanding needs, providing certainty, and guiding clients towards choices that truly benefit them.

What are your thoughts on this philosophy? Do you believe "selling to help" is the key to long-term success in any field?

08/04/2026

Most transformers don’t fail.
Systems do.

In mining and industrial environments, what looks like a “transformer failure” is often the result of poor system design, protection gaps, or unrealistic load assumptions.

The real issue?
We focus on components… instead of the system as a whole.

Have you seen this happen on site?

"Why Transformers Rarely Fail — And What Actually Does" Most “transformer failures” aren’t transformer failures at all. They’re system failures hiding behind a convenient label.