PayFast is all about supporting South African entrepreneurs and startups in achieving success. That’s why we are proud to sponsor empowering and inspirational initiatives such as Future Females, which recently celebrated their 2nd birthday.
Future Females was established in Cape Town in August 2017 by Lauren Dallas and Cerina Bezuidenhout as a solution to the evident lack of female representation and support in the entrepreneurship and startup scene. Their vision was to create a multi-city, and eventually a multinational, network of physical and digital chapters where female entrepreneurs could connect, be inspired and support one another in developing and actioning their ideas and business ventures.
In only two short years Future Females is well on their way to achieving their goal; there are now 24 chapters on five continents consisting of over 312,000 members. Each of the chapters hold monthly themed events and workshops led by experts and entrepreneurs.
The theme of the Cape Town birthday meetup celebration was ‘Resilience: How to Fail, Own Up & Show Up’. Following a warm opening by Lauren, where she outlined the ups and downs of the Future Females journey, the sold-out audience were treated to two special presentations by celebrated social entrepreneurs Farhana Parker and Philip Kiracofe, who shared their own failures and how they overcame them to succeed.
Farhana inspired the audience by reflecting on quotes and sayings, and how to implement them in one’s daily life to achieve success. For example these golden nuggets: “Everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t understand it,” that is, if your first business idea fails then it means you are destined for something greater; and “While you can’t change other people’s actions, you can change your reaction to those actions,” which is all about staying positive.
Philip followed with a presentation focusing on how to embrace failures and turn them into valuable learning experiences. His theme focused on the Failure Club, an initiative he co-started in 2004 that encourages groups of friends to get together and make a pact to set an outlandish goal and achieve it within a year, be it from visiting a new country to mastering a new skill. By having a clear goal and being held accountable by the group, the more likely the goal can be accomplished, and even if it fails there will be memorable experiences along the way.
Since we came onboard as one of the first Future Females sponsors in May 2019, we have been immensely proud with what they have accomplished. Happy 2nd birthday Future Females, and here’s to many more!
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