In this long-form interview, Ntsikelelo Mzibomvu traces a candid path from academic dropout and depression to author, facilitator, and social entrepreneur. He opens by acknowledging an early “failure” that pushed him out of university and into short-lived jobs. Realizing traditional employment was not for him, he returned home, confronted a deep depressive period, and immersed himself in personal development: mindset work, visualization, meditation, and building a wealth and possibility mindset.

Seeing problems in his community, he began giving talks at schools and wrote independently published books to spark transformation, refusing to dilute his voice through gatekeepers. Early projects misfired due to editing and positioning challenges, but he iterated: from a broad political-social thesis to “Thinking Ghetto Genius,” targeting township youth with practical self-belief and agency. He describes the branding headwinds of selling “ghetto” language to corporates and how persistence, not a single formula, kept him moving.

Corporate workshops eventually arrived, alongside experiments like the Ubuntu Sessions and Conversations over Coffee and Art, a dialogue platform blending art, entrepreneurship, and social commentary. He highlights a lean business model: outsource instead of hiring, avoid fixed overhead, and keep expenses light so the work survives downturns.

A pivotal reinvention came via “Reimagining Myself,” a consolidated and matured synthesis of his earlier books. Encouraged by Reimagine South Africa’s pillars of political, emotional, and economic settlement, he rewrote his work, earning a foreword and onstage support from Dr Mamphela Ramphele. COVID forced more innovation: direct-to-reader sales via WhatsApp, preorders during lockdown, and continued brand-building when in-person events paused.

The throughline is entrepreneurial thinking as a life practice: design business models that serve a social mission and create multiple paths to income. He urges would-be founders to ignore doom cycles, remember that “money is always circulating,” and position themselves where value and opportunity meet. His closing note returns to agency: control your inner environment, your response, and your presence in the rooms you enter, so trust and opportunity follow.

In this WISDOMS™ Interview, Ntsikelelo Mzibomvu joins from a rooftop in Johannesburg to discuss his journey as an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. The conversation centers on the evolution of his books, his motivations, and the South African context that shapes his work.

Mzibomvu explains that his path into writing was born from reading. The more he absorbed novels, newspapers, and personal development texts, the more compelled he became to share perspectives in writing. Reading not only sharpened his critical thinking but also gave him a language to simplify complex ideas for others. He emphasizes that his books aim to enable transformation at the “being” level empowering readers to change internally and, as a result, take external action in any area of their lives.

A key thread throughout the discussion is the South African context. He critiques many Western personal development books as detached from local realities, assuming a societal stage that South Africa has not fully reached. His mission has been to bridge those gaps, situating personal development within the legacy of apartheid, the challenges of democracy, and the psychological scars of poverty and inequality. He frames his early book Beyond Democracy as an attempt to spark a national “renaissance” a rebirth in thinking, values, and systems.

Mzibomvu also shares the origins of his “Thinking Ghetto” series (Thinking Ghetto Genius and Thinking Ghetto Entrepreneur), designed to reclaim pride for township youth while providing tools for resilience and entrepreneurial thinking. Later, he merged these works with Beyond Democracy into Reimagining Myself, a synthesis aligned with the pillars of Reimagine South Africa.

The interview highlights his collaborations with visual artists, including The Path to Great Joy, a book that uses art to explore social issues like toxic masculinity and the societal conditions that sustain it. For Mzibomvu, art and writing together create liberating dialogues that reflect society and inspire personal actualization.

Ultimately, he defines his books as enablers: tools to help individuals break free from internal prisons, embrace choice, and cultivate freedom. He positions writing as both a personal act of liberation and a collective call for South Africans to heal, think differently, and embrace a new renaissance.