🧠 Transformation and Rewiring: The 16 Hardwires Series

Let's talk about transformation! 

This article explores all 16 Hardwires from A2BTransformation – helping you move from dependency (A-levels) to independence and self-direction (B-levels).

What are Hardwires? Neurological patterns formed throughout your life – from birth to now. Shaped by your DNA, environment, parenting, choices, and experiences.

How to assess yours? A2B offers assessments for all ages. Interpretation coaches help break down your results and their implications. Learn more: Hardwires Assessment 

THE 16 HARDWIRES:

1. ZIZO (Zoom-In & Zoom-Out) - Read 
2. UP (Unconducive Parenting)
3. ABU (Abuse)
4. MOM (Matters of the Mind)
5. ADD (Addiction)
6. OLM (Old-Minded)
7. ATT (Attitude)
8. VIC (Victim)
9. ECO (Ecosystem)
10. LOC (Locus of Control)
11. LOR (Low Resources)
12. LIB (Limited Beliefs)
13. VEN (Vengeance)
14. EGO (Egotism)
15. WIS (Wolf in Sheep's Clothing)
16. HEA (Heartless)

In the coming posts, we'll break down each hardwire in simple terms. Jump to the ones that interest you most!

Next up: Deep dive begins 🧵

• ZIZO (Zoom-In & Zoom-Out)

Are You Self-Aware or Self-Absorbed?

People don't care about our problems, just like we don't care about other people's problems. And this is okay.

But it gets interesting — Most people don't even care about your wins & life-defining achievements, because they're too absorbed in their own wins.

I saw this clearly, recently, when catching up with a high school friend. He lit up talking about his grade 9 rugby season—how his team went undefeated, the thrill of that winning streak. I was in the same grade, I saw him nearly every day. But I remembered none of it.

While he was recounting what was clearly a defining achievement, all I could recall was seeing him lug heavy sports bags and wear that funny-fitting team jersey.

"Why?", I introspected. But the answer was simple. It is because I was living in my own highlight reel. In grade 9, I'd made the 1st Team soccer team and earned the number 10 jersey—the best player spot. I walked around thinking everyone noticed, everyone admired me for making first team so early. And till this day — I am happy to recount to anyone willing to hear, that I made first team squad so early in High School…

Standing there watching my friend's face glow with his memory while I drew a complete blank on his triumph—that's when it hit me. We're all doing this. We assume we know what others notice, what they value, what they remember about us. But we're mostly just projecting our own movie onto everyone else's screen.

This self-absorption isn't good or bad—it just is. But here's what changed for me: I stopped assuming my version of events is the accurate one. When I think 'they must remember this' or 'surely they noticed that'—I pause. Do I actually know? Or am I just seeing my own reflection everywhere I look? That small shift—from certainty to curiosity about how wrong I might be—changes everything.

Sam Madlala 

Just How Difficult Is Change in the Wrong Environment?

Incredibly difficult.

Years ago, there was a man who was dear to me. He had made his way in our community from taxi driver to Taxi Association Rank Manager.

In his forties, he was warned by doctors that his health was deteriorating rapidly - daily bouts of drinking, numerous cigarettes a day. And here's the saddest part:

He KNEW what to do. And he BEGAN taking steps to change.

He ran at 5am for a couple of days. He stopped drinking for a few weeks. He cut down to two cigarettes a day. But to sustain change like that, you can't stay in the environment that encouraged the behavior in the first place.

Worse, he had to HIDE. He used back routes during his morning runs because his taxi friends would ridicule him: "He wants to run the marathon, hehehe."

Worst of all, he was consumed by anxiety about what people thought - which worsened his chances of quitting. Why? Black townships tend to be crowded. By age 25, most people know a lot about a lot of people. By 40, you're convinced everyone's watching you - because you yourself know everyone.

So those 5am runs didn't last. The alcohol abstinence didn't make it past a month - not around buddies who hadn't seen a doctor in years, who didn't care about their internal organs. In a community where healthcare access was limited and distrust of doctors ran deep, health was dismissed as "a white person's problem, or for nerds, or grannies." It wasn't a priority. It was seen as a luxury.

Here's what I learned from watching him struggle:

Change is difficult, but not really. What's difficult is changing a behavior or mindset while you're still in the environment that introduced and encouraged it.

Alcohol. Cannabis. Cigarettes. Porn. Gossip. Cheating. Illiteracy. Endless scrolling. Fixed mindsets. Laziness.

These behaviors destroy health, self-esteem, longevity, and clear thinking. But in certain households, communities, provinces - they're everywhere. They seem cool, normal, harmless.

But they're not. Looking at research, history, and what happened to the man I loved - they're harmful, destructive, and leave families vulnerable to poverty, aimlessness, and economic failure.

That man passed away five years later. Two years of affliction. Hospitalized. Wheelchair-bound. Swelling. Diabetes. Multiple diseases.

That man was my father.

And he couldn't sustain change in the wrong environment.

I left a month after burying him. I now live and work 100 km away. I read. I maintain routines. I lead teams. I write these words.

Not because I'm stronger than my father. But because I had the privilege of distance - something he never gave himself permission to seek.

If you're reading this and recognize yourself in toxic patterns - whether it's drinking, gossip, doomscrolling, or just going through the motions - ask yourself:

Is my environment helping me grow, or keeping me stuck?

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is leave. Not forever. But long enough to become who you're meant to be.

— Sam Madlala

The Mental Benefits of Long-term Investing Beyond Money Making

 

Reading time: 2 minutes

From 2018 to 2023, I dedicated myself to mastering active trading—stocks, currencies, crypto. By 2023, I had to admit the truth: I needed a job to sustain my growing needs as a growing man. The dream of trading for a living was threatening my relationship and financial independence.

I got a job—and slowly transitioned to investing because there just wasn't enough time in a day to sit in front of screens, analyzing and researching. I have nothing against short-term trading, but it didn't work for me, nor do I think I'll try it again in the future.

Lessons as an Investor

Thankfully, every genuine effort yields results—so my active trading experience with patterns, mindset, and market information was now being applied to longer-term investing. And this is what I've learned.

Long-term investing teaches us "Active Patience." Because you know returns will take time—not months, but years to accumulate—you naturally don't sit in front of the screen praying, wishing, or trying to control their direction. Instead, at least what I do, I teach myself skills that will increase my income outside of investing: project management, writing, public speaking. And as my income increases, I invest more in my portfolio, which in turn yields more profits in the form of dividends and percentage returns.

The mental benefits are notable: I certainly sleep better, waking up early to practice skills rather than frantically checking my P&L dashboard. I notice more objective thinking versus wishful thinking, and reduced stress and emotional swings that trading, like gambling, comes with.

In the long run, I believe I'll be a better manager of my wealth with the extra career skills I'm developing. For example, with project management, I'll better invest my funds in initiatives that I can manage myself instead of hiring qualified managers. I can write my own quarterly reports to stakeholders, and I can market my own ideas and values to my staff and clients.

This path offers something trading never could: the space to build a life while building wealth.

Thanks for reading.

Sam 

Great Minds - A Series 1/4

 

Grab a cup of coffee and prepare your mind for powerful, transformative words from some of the greatest thinkers of the last 2,000 years.

Every day, I read—a book, an article, an essay, or simply scroll through X for motivational quotes. I've developed a system for capturing the best insights I find: they progress from daily discoveries to 'Best Monthly Quotes,' and eventually to 'Best Yearly Quotes.' Below, I'm sharing my Monthly & Quarterly Best—the quotes that stopped me in my tracks and changed how I think.

On Action & Achievement

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."
— Leonardo da Vinci

"When you think something's impossible, consider this: people who achieve extraordinary things are willing to endure what others won't.

Take SpaceX. In 2002, most experts said private companies couldn't build orbital rockets. Musk accepted years of failure and ridicule that others wouldn't.

What you call impossible is often just pain you're unwilling to endure."
— Shane Parrish

On Focus, Mastery & Growth

"The secret to success in almost all fields is large, uninterrupted blocks of focused time."
 — Ryan Holiday

• Simplified: The most valuable skill you can build: The ability to focus for 2-3 hours a day and get your most important work done.

"The more you exercise, the more high-energy you become; the more you write, the more clear-minded you become; the more you take risks, the more ambitious you become."
— Orange Book "

"The right direction in life is full of painful rejections, you should actually be concerned if the journey doesn't hurt at all."
— Orange Book

On Happiness & Human Nature

"Humans never genuinely pursue happiness; they only pursue relief from uncertainty. Happiness emerges momentarily as a byproduct whenever uncertainty briefly disappears."
— Chris Williamson

On Character & Wisdom

You draw out of the world what you put into it.

• Want to attract exceptional people? Be exceptional.
• Want to attract reliable people? Be reliable.
• Want to attract trustworthy people? Be trustworthy.
• Want to attract welcoming people? Be welcoming.

— James Clear

"In a society where fewer and fewer people read books, if you just make it a habit to read old books, you will nurture a perspective that no one else has, you will get ideas that no one else has, you will naturally stand out by the quality of your thoughts."
— Orange Book

In Closing

"There's no short-cut to any place worth going."
— Beverly Sills

Sam Cancelo Madlala 

Why Business Models Fail in the Township Economy

 

I saw this quote on X: "Forget climbing the corporate ladder, the most valuable skill of the future is building something of your own."

My first thought? Educational content, subscriptions, consulting. Then reality hit me: none of that works where I live—in black communities where the average person is unemployed, doesn't own a personal computer, goes through 5+ stages to get married, doesn't read, thinks politics is culture¹ and is steeped in traditional dogma.

The Reality We're Ignoring

When poverty is the common denominator, you can't grow via subscription fees or selling habit trackers.

You can't "coach" anyone because they are saving up for their aunt's 4th stage of marriage in 4 months, which will cost the family over R40,000. (A cow for the community, free food and expensive dresses). You can't grow in consulting, because your target market doesn't own any business that needs problem solving or expert advice.

What is the typical picture of black communities? This: 60% unemployment⁴ , drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, a cycle of traditional events, and taxi violence.

What Might Actually Work

What ideas might work in these conditions? First, anything that directly lowers the 60% unemployment rate.

If I'm trying to make money out of black communities, I'm destined to fail. Unless I'm selling drugs or own a nightclub. A better approach is building a regenerative model I can advertise to corporate or government funders — one that creates jobs and restores dignity.

So what actually creates jobs in communities such as these?

There’s a lot: cleaning cooperatives, recycling projects, delivery services, construction, plumbing, repair technicians, solar energy technicians, data collection, and tutoring programs³.

In my country, this is where I can grow and be profitable. It's harder, steeper, and more uncertain, but I'll share an encouraging passage from Lord of the Rings, novel by J.R.R Tolkien:

Frodo: "I wish it need not have happened in my time."

Gandalf: "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

In South Africa, this is our time — and our decision.

Notes:

1. The reference to “politics as culture” was meant to suggest that many people treat politics as something to follow loyally, like religion, rather than as a democratic practice grounded in competence, care, and lawfulness.

2. My initial thoughts on “building something of my own” also leaned toward investing, day trading, and creative projects like podcasting — but these are 1% domains.

3. Tutoring programs could be designed through partnerships with schools, universities, and companies that want to upskill their employees in specific areas.

4. The 60% unemployment rate mentioned here is based on Google Search data and refers primarily to black townships in South Africa.

5. IDC 1 min video: Bhavanesh — I truly admire the efforts of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) for their Social Employment Fund (SEF).
   I also echo the words of Bhavanesh Parbhoo, SEF Project Manager, who says:

   “The mandate of the IDC programme is to stimulate real job creation, support micro-enterprises, and promote soft industrialization — providing technical skills and enabling individuals to create their own pathways out of poverty and unemployment.” 

Author: Samkelo Madlala, DUCT Rivers Project Coordinator 

Letters from Underground

Letters from Underground

What does it look and feel like to live in an environment that’s slowly downgrading?
I’m speaking here about my current city — Pietermaritzburg.

I write this because of a recent and rather embarrassing failure by the municipality to maintain the city’s only stadium, the Harry Gwala Stadium. A team recently promoted to the First Division had to bring their own lawn cutters to clear the field before their match. That was embarrassing — and symbolic.

But back to the point: what does it actually look and feel like to live in this city — the so-called “capital city” of KwaZulu-Natal, and apparently, of South Africa?

Well, it feels like being in any other city in the country — perhaps even the world. Our feelings, after all, are within our control. But what does it look like?

It looks like any other city in South Africa: the poor growing poorer, while the rich continue to enjoy beautiful homes, drive beautiful cars, and access better services.

This is crucial, because I can’t confidently pinpoint the exact moment when the decline began — especially since I wasn’t here ten years ago. What I can accurately point to is the growing incompetence I observe daily: people throwing litter out of their car windows, inconsiderate drivers blocking traffic to chat with friends while others struggle to pass, professional soccer players disappearing into obscurity after impregnating university girls, and the spreading waste, drug addiction, and poverty in the inner city — all symptoms of an incapable municipality and indifferent government officials.

What I’m trying to communicate is that decline takes time, just like success. It takes repeated actions and reinforced beliefs, in a specific direction, to produce tangible results — whether for individuals, cities, or entire countries.

— Cancelo Alvarez