Overcoming adversity

CEO of JustSolve or just Botha?

It’s the same, no? A title does not define who you are or your worth.

I want to revisit my past and share some pivotal and influential events that helped shape me into who I am today.

My story and a testimony to God’s grace and, hopefully, some inspiration to those who need it.

Everyone has their own story, and I would like each of you to tell it at some point. You never know who you will influence and in what way.

I grew up in the small city of Windhoek, Namibia, after we moved there from South Africa when I was five.

Without boring you with the details, we moved around quite a lot, from a lovely 4-bedroom house with a swimming pool to a children’s orphanage. When I was ten years old, my parents divorced, and we moved with my mother to a girls’ hostel where she was the caregiver and a teacher at the same school.

Early on, I realised that we would need to create our opportunities in life, but I had no idea how or what lay ahead. All I knew was to save as much as possible when and where possible. I started saving my pocket money and doing odd jobs like being a ball boy at the rugby. I kept any spare cash and money I received on birthdays by investing it in Sanlam shares.

In grade ten, I worked at a factory during school holidays assembling bicycles for the outlet shops, and in grade eleven, I worked at CNA as and when I could, but then tragedy struck…my dad declared bankruptcy and he lost everything. Not just him but me, I lost the Sanlam investments as this was in his name, and I also lost the university study policy that would have given me the opportunity and means to study at a tertiary institution.

Here I am, grade twelve, the final year of school. In South Africa and Namibia, we call it Matric.

I was disappointed, mad, frustrated, and scared. My dad just went bankrupt, and I had no idea what the future would hold.

I started working at PQ Namibia as a network cabling technician. For four months, I saved every cent. I learned a lot, but how would I put myself through university? I took my savings, sold my computer, bought a return ticket to London, and landed at Heathrow International Airport with 150 pounds in my pocket (January 2001), ready to take on the world and do what was needed (many prayers later).

But what do you think I should do? How far can you get with 150 pounds? I knew some people who invited me to stay with them, I only had to pay them 5 pounds a night to sleep on the floor.

Here I am, the first year out of school, 18 years of age, in a strange land where I know no one.

I quickly found a door-to-door sales job. Within three weeks, I was going to conferences in Manchester and being promoted to team leader. I realised that I was good at selling myself and my products but that this job was not for me. I knew I had to search for a new job as I had very little runway to sustain myself.

This booklet came out every two weeks with new job listings that you could pick up on a Monday at your nearest tube station in London.

It was one of those Mondays when the new booklet would be released, and I was still desperately looking for a new job. I clearly remember the date, 17 February 2001, as if it was yesterday. At this point, I had borrowed some money from a teacher I met as my 150 pounds had dried up, but God showed me the way. I wish I could remember his name so that I could thank him.

The same Monday, I walked past the outdated booklet twice and felt I had to open the brochure. As I opened the booklet, I stared into an ad for a network cabling technician, the same job I did when I was Matric the previous year.

This was a definitive moment in my personal and spiritual life. I learned to stand dependent in front of God and be grateful in all situations.

I picked up the phone and phoned the number on the ad. I got the job, God provided, and the rest is history, as they say.

After two years in the UK, I was blessed to such an extent that I could assist my mother so she could afford to build her dream house. I was also privileged enough to enrol in university (2003), where I studied Computer Engineering.

Although I saved all I could, it was not enough to put myself through 4 years of studies, the yearly accommodation, the books and the monthly food and bill payments.

We saw a need in the residences to supply computer equipment to students. Mark Bohmer and I started a company called Oceanshelf Computers, where we did just that for about two years. This brought in some additional cash on the side for both of us, but we needed more for our studies.

In my second year at university, I started working night shifts as a security guard (boom gate duty), ensuring the students were safe when returning from a night out. In my third year, I had two jobs: security work and maintaining the computers of two labs with 80 computers. This income, together with the 25% staff discount on my studies from the university employment programme, allowed me to keep all my payments up to date and buy my first car, cash, a brand new 2005 Toyota Tazz.

In my fourth year, I started working full-time while attending classes and studying in the evenings. By 2006, I married my lovely wife, Sunette; by the middle of 2007, we were debt-free (our cars and studies were paid up).

God blessed me with a wife who has stood by me through thick and thin; without her, I would not be the man or be in the position I am today, so thank you for all your support since 2003, Sunette.

Between 2006 and 2016, a lot happened, from getting married to having kids, from having a “safe” permanent job to working for a company that went through retrenchments, from leasing a flat and cycling to work for two years to owning our first home, from junior software developer to CIO and everything in between.

Through all the ups and downs, God has always provided a better outcome than we could ever have imagined. At the age of 33, God had another journey planned for me. My ex-boss, Jacs Lemmer, gave me the opportunity to assist them with some consultation work and resurrect a legacy system that had been dormant for the last two years.

After some prayer and a good old morning shower, the idea popped into my head that I should start a software development company. I pitched my thoughts to the client, and within two months, I had three employees and a profitable business called JustSolve Group . It was not easy convincing the first three employees, I vividly remember meeting JJ at my house, phoning Richard's wife Shanon on a Saturday for more than two hours sitting in my car in the car park, and almost four hours convincing Hanno and his wife the Sunday afternoon at their house.

See the “About” section of my profile page. Here, you will read more about where and how I discovered the Power of Transparent Collaboration and the birth of JustSolve.

Almost eight years later, I am proud of what has been built, but there is so much more to be done. Botha van der Vyver and JustSolve's books still have many chapters to write, and I cannot wait. I love the journey; I love the clients. I love the people, I love the tech, I love adding value, I love making an impact, and I love problem-solving.

#JustBlessed #JustGrateful #GodIsGreat #JustSolve #OvercomingAdversity