Open Letter to Cassper Nyovest

Dear Refiloe “Cassper Nyovest” Phoolo.

My name is Teboho Thuswa, The Kasi Preacher (22), I’m a Motivated Speaker and not a Motivational Speaker because challenges I went through motivates me to speak and change people's lives. Hardworking people like you add value to the things I speak about and inspire me to do great and be great.

I was moved to write this letter to you because you are a living testimony that if you believe things will happen they will happen regardless of where you come from. I would hereby like to let you know that as you are working hard some of us are positively watching you and drawing immense inspiration from your hustle. You inspire us to wake up every day in the morning to go hustle for what we believe in even though we live in places where the power of negative mindsets seems to rule

Refiloe Phoolo, you dropped out of high school because you had a dream, something that I believe
you saw which everybody didn’t, you have shown that Yes education is important, but when God has blessed you with exceptional talents and gifts you can still make millions you desire to have because what you have and believe in is a key point to ultimate riches. Napoleon Hill once said “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past”, you have definitely demonstrated it to all the dreamers in the world that it can be done, IT’S POSSIBLE when you pray and believe in it. How you started makes a lot of us see that every dream can come to true regardless of how hard the circumstances may be. We live in a world today where we are surrounded by too many negative beliefs of people who constantly tell us that it’s IMPOSSIBLE to achieve big dreams, it’s impossible to live in a mansion as a black child and yet there are so many buildings, hotels, malls and franchises that were started by people and these are people who had 'Never say Never' spirit like you Nyovest.

On MiCampusmag you said “I told my parents that I'd rather chase my dream, which I believe is going to work out, rather than keeping it safe and regret it my whole life”. After reading that, I just thought of many of us who are in careers our parents or circumstances chose for, careers we don’t want, careers that limit our potentials, careers that make us sick and careers that trap us because of survival. Today majority of us are impatient and we want things to happen very quickly. You bravely took the hard hitting pain of patience and I’m glad you admit in your song Strive by saying; “Cassper Nyovest, got in the room and meditated, I knew that it was possible, calculating obstacles, the only thing I lack was patience like empty hospitals”. Most of us are living with FEAR these days, FEAR of failure, FEAR of what if things don’t work out, FEAR of what if they laugh at me when I fail, FEAR of what if they steal my idea when I pitch and FEAR of what if I’m not good enough. We also suffer from the notion of wanting to start now and expect results to appear sooner and when it doesn’t happen we then begin to think like failures and develop hate and jealousy for those who are doing better than us. You showed us that FEAR is the path of suffering and it will only block us and give birth to demons in our hearts, you have also justified that you have to be patient because it’s the ONLY thing that will give birth to success.

Your #FillUpTheDome dream that gave us an unforgettable was a true African dream that demonstrated that it can be done; we have been waiting for someone like you to take it upon himself and not wait for an event organizer or a big company to do it, you indeed made history and you make us proud with your ambitions and we seek to be better with what we do at all times because of your courage and bravery illustrations. The time for Africa to shine is now! We are the future and nothing can stop us. Maybe you have no idea how this woke so many of us up. We are standing and saying NO societal stereotypes, NO to the cycle of self-hate and lack of patriotism. We are saying the big YES to riches and big YES to success and big YES to possibilities through the power of God. I have no doubt why Orlando Stadium won't be full because you have done it whilst many doubted you.

The over million Facebook Likes you have means we love you, we love your work, we love the connection you have with us, we love how you communicate with us, we love how you encourage us to do great and we love how you entertain us. The only reason why you have more attacks now is because you are valuable and you know negative people hate that, A thief never robs an empty house. So they will pull stunts just to sabotage your plans, but I don't worry much about you because I know you have a crocodile skin, the more they hate you is the more you keep flying higher. You are too strong.

On one Facebook post you said “Don't ever let what people think of you distort what you think of yourself. Your life!!! You decide how great you wanna be”. I was again on that big and stylish YES of Tbo Touch!! When I said  I am going to be a millionaire and the most influential young speaker, I was told that I need to be a millionaire first so that I can have a story to tell, I refused to listen to that and said to myself I need to start with what I have and where I am. Everybody has a story to tell; even the guy on the streets has a story to tell. If I listened to them, I’m sure I would still be exploited at the marketing company I worked for. You are living your dreams and what motivates me most is that you don’t leave God behind; you have done mistakes but learnt to be the better person through your dreams and definitely proved that BEING GOOD TO THOSE WHO ARE BAD BUILDS CHARACTER.

From being a Gangster at a very young age, to the person you are today definitely sends a strong message to our fellow youngsters who are wasting their time and talents with cruel things such as Nyaope, burning schools,  promoting rape culture, and drinking alcohol as if it’s the end of the world. On one interview you once had in Zimbabwe with 2 Broke Twimbos you stated that, at some point you got in your mom’s room and cried because things weren’t happening, no one was feeling you, but you prayed and things started happening. You also mention that people see you as this cool guy and big entertainer but they don’t know it’s because of praying believers group you have with people like Major League Djz and others. Surely majority never thought that Cassper Nyovest prays when things are hard and prays when things are good. I am very pleased that you acknowledge that you have all you have because of the Mighty God and without kneeling down and praying it wouldn’t have happened. Most of us seem to remember God when we go through challenges only and forget him when things go well sometimes, and I used to be one of those, I changed, I pray at all times now and started being patient with the plan that God has for me.

As an entrepreneur and CEO of Teboho Thuswa Speaks and Fishmonger Creations, I have also learnt from you that success will come in its own time, and what you need to do as a person is to create the perfect timing and opportunity for it by investing hours in your craft and delivering content that will connect with people.  You released tracks before but when you released Gusheshe you said it is going to be the biggest song in the country and that happened. One thing I saw and realized is that it connected and spoke with us, we knew the car Gusheshe. Refiloe monna with your creativity, you went on to remind us about the Kwaito veteran Doc Shebeleza and how you want to wake up feeling like him, we knew Doc Shebeleza, and it’s someone we grew up listening to. You then gave us a nice way to push negative people away from us by just saying Phumakim, we all have people who try to jeopardize our success, and we also connected with that. Your creativity with the people you work with gives us a different take to life and the rest is just history, I mean what more do I need to say when you parking Bentley in your garage as a black from the hood? What more do I say when you fly SA flag abroad? What can I say when you do songs with amazing Legends? What more do I say monna Refiloe? Cassper my brother what you must know now is that you’ve hurt many people with your success, there are people who are angry with their failures and therefore seeing your success evokes their wounds and makes them to want to stand in your way instead of supporting you.

People tend to be generous when sharing their nonsense, fear, and ignorance. And while they seem quite eager to feed you their negativity, please remember that sometimes the diet we need to be on is a spiritual and emotional one. Cassper, you don’t ever apologize for your success, you really deserve all you have, Family Tree, Cars, Houses, Awards, #TeamNyovest Brand and more. I mean you had sleepless nights calculating those obstacles and now it’s time to reward yourself. Monna Refiloe, You have done well for yourself and you should be proud. Negative people have a lot of negative energy and their negative thoughts can destroy your abilities and plans, there a lot of kids who are looking up to you and who need you more than ever and these are the kids who fight with their parents for wanting Cassper’s ponytail lol.., even prisoners at the maximum security prison voted for you last year to visit for a performance, I mean there are many rappers in South Africa but they chose Cassper Nyovest. Why Cassper? Because they see hope in you. You are a symbol of hope and possibilities.

On one ANN7 interview you evoked my hustle instincts when you spoke about how sleeping is not good for hustlers and particularly because there is no time to sleep. I found a verse in the bible that evidently highlights this. Proverbs 20:13, it says “Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare”. Many of us love sleeping so much not realizing that time wasted never comes back. My minimum sleeping hours are now 5 to 6 hours. I am acting on my dream of being a MILLIONAIRE and the most influential young speaker. You did it, you are the number one Rapper in SA and I am going to make it as well.

Mama I Made It! Cassper, every young person wants to tell their Mamas that they made it! We work so hard every day because we want to make them proud. Through that song I got it that we must apologize for our wrong doings because without our parent’s blessings we are nothing! I can't just wait to drop the top to the Porsche and stick out my head and scream Mama I Made I It Oh no!. Our parents love us so much, they make sacrifices that no one can make for us and we must also never forget how they raised us. People like you and Ifani who wrote and sang a beautiful message for his late granny uMam'Mthembu who raised him inspires us that whether they are still alive or not we must let them know that we made it so that they can rejoice wherever they are and also ask God to keep them well for us.

Nyovest, Keep on shining because God has huge plans for you. Keep on working hard because your name is now celebrated, you are a role model. Lastly, you are destined for greatness Refiloe Maele Phoolo. Never allow people to stop your go! Nna ke tlese!

Warm Regards

Teboho Thuswa Speaks, The Kasi Preacher, The Motivated Speaker @tebohothuswa