The comedian Chris Rock once broke down the difference between a job and a career. When you have a job, you’re always watching the clock. Time drags. You play games with yourself, promising not to look at your watch for two hours, only to find that a painstaking fifteen minutes has passed. When you have a career, there’s never enough time. You’re driven by a project, a passion. You look up, and the day is gone.

Right now, for too many of its people, South Africa feels more like a job than a career. We are collectively watching the clock, waiting for the shift to end. But what if we could transform our nation into a passion project we all wanted to be a part of?

The Vision Deficit: A Nation Staring in the Rear-view Mirror

The first step is to be honest about where we are. As a country, we lack a clear, optimistic, forward-looking vision. If you ask most corporations what their five-year plan is, they can articulate it. If you ask the same of South Africa, you’ll be met with silence. Our national identity seems to be defined not by where we are going, but by a paralyzing fear of our past. The “Rainbow Nation,” for all its visual appeal, has often served as a comforting blanket to hide the fact that we don’t have a real plan. It’s an identity based on avoiding the darkness behind us, rather than striding toward a light in front of us.

The "Oprah" Moment: Finding Our Intention

So how do we shift our focus forward? I believe the answer lies in a lesson from Oprah Winfrey’s transformation into the icon she is today. Early in her career, she was a regular journalist who had just produced a sensational episode: a mother who was a teacher by day and a prostitute by night. It was headline-grabbing content, ready to air. But just before it went live, Oprah paused. She thought about the consequence of the story, specifically on the woman’s ten-year-old child. In that moment of reflection, she pulled the episode.

From that day on, her guiding principle became intention. Her team no longer just chased a story; they had to articulate the intention behind it. This is the shift South Africa desperately needs. We need to move beyond reacting to our past and start asking: What is our intention for the future?

Corporate "Mini-Visions" Filling the Void

In the absence of this national vision, an unexpected group has stepped up: corporate South Africa. Through my work hosting panels with the country’s leading brands, I’ve realized they are providing the intentional, forward-looking leadership that is otherwise missing. They are crafting "mini-visions" for the country, tackling our most complex social problems not as a side project, but as a core part of their strategy. I can promise you, if you were to pull the plug on the work these brands are doing, our country would be in a far more desperate state.

A Formula for Sustainable Impact

This work isn't random. There is a clear formula to making a real difference, which I simplify as 1+1+1=9.

• The first 1 is Intention: The genuine desire of a brand to do good.

• The second 1 is a clearly identified Problem: Focusing on a specific societal challenge.

• The third 1 is an effective solution: Applying a smart, sustainable intervention to that problem.

When you combine these three, the result is not three, but nine—Exponential Positive Results. The impact you create is greater than the sum of its parts. Every brand I have hosted has demonstrated the power of this formula.

The First Principle: It Takes the Right People

None of this works, however, without the most critical ingredient. My first principle of social impact is simple: you must have the right people. These roles cannot be filled by someone just looking for a job. The people driving these initiatives are not doing the fancy stuff; they are on the ground, doing the hard work because they are fueled by a deep sense of purpose. They have careers, not jobs. Choosing them deliberately is the most important decision a leader can make in this space.

This is our way forward. Corporate South Africa is showing us what’s possible when you act with intention. They are turning their work in this country from a job into a career. Now, we must do the same for the nation as a whole.