Try Googling Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias alongside South African lion tracker Boyd Varty and you won’t get many relevant results.
But both Ric and Boyd lead with their hearts and measure wealth in relationships. They each have a popular TED Talk and share wisdom through stories. Ric will imitate the sound of a failing airplane engine just like Varty mimics a roaring lion in the jungle.
And both men stared death straight in the eye and were saved by heroes called Sully.
It’s wild, I know.
Awaken Your Ubuntu Soul
Boyd Varty first introduced me to the African philosophy of Ubuntu. It loosely means humanity towards others and reminds us that we can’t exist in isolation. It’s perhaps best described in maxims:
I am because we are.
A person is a person through other people.
Boyd explains Ubuntu through a near-death experience with fellow tracker Solly Mhlongo (pronounced Sully). It was a hot day at the Londolozi Game Reserve and the two men were walking along the river when a crocodile attacked Boyd and mangled his leg. As the predator went for a second bite Boyd kicked down its throat to create a moment of separation. Solly immediately waded into the water to rescue Boyd with no fear of the croc between them.
In the aftermath, Boyd repeatedly asked Solly why he came into the water. Befuddled and exasperated, Solly finally uttered, “My brother, you’re in trouble, I’m in trouble!”
Boyd elaborated:
I came to see that Solly grew up in a much more collective consciousness. He grew up with his tribe. He grew up hunting and gathering. He grew up in nature and he lived in a much more interconnected way than any of us live.
In fact his whole psyche was not formed around individuality. His psyche was formed around a we consciousness — you and me together… He did not see it as any kind of heroic action. He just saw it as the most obvious, natural thing to do.
Similarly, Ric spreads Ubuntu far and wide. He believes the best way to teach your kids how to live is to treat strangers with kindness and to spread love through friendship.
It’s not just words. Here is an anecdote from Ampush founder Jesse Pujji after Red Ventures made a $15m minority investment.
Instead of focusing on relative material success, optimize for relational wealth. Varty reminds us that Ubuntu is activated through action — go first.
Follow the Terrain
Boyd Varty has summarized a few attributes that make a great tracker: you need to have a relationship with the unknown, learn the art of the first track, generate a following state, and be able to handle losing the track.
If you follow the origin story of Red Ventures, you can see this tracking mindset at work. The business has pivoted multiple times since its launch in January 2000. Ric Elias describes how constant evolution is etched into the culture:
What we are today is significantly different from what we were 18 months ago. And significantly different from 36 months ago, and completely different from 54 months ago. The only thing that you can conclude is, 18 months from now, we will be different again.
You don’t need big, hairy, audacious goals — you just need to follow your curiosities and find the next first track.
The Unspoken Language
Move over Bill Simmons. Ric Elias is the new body language doctor. And for Ric, our eyes are the gateway to truth.
Ric was sitting in seat 1D on US Airways Flight 1549 in January 2009 that Captain “Sully” Sullenberger miraculously landed in the Hudson River. Before it became clear a water landing was inevitable, Ric knew it was time to say goodbye to his life by the altered tone in the flight attendant’s eyes.
The ability to converse without words is perhaps best depicted when Elias reconnected with Captain Sully nearly a decade later. After much anticipation, the two men shook hands but neither said a word.
He could see in my eyes what I wanted to say in a way that was so deep and he understood. And I saw in his eyes a connection that two human beings can't manufacture.
Ric has said that every interaction is a game of influence. It’s eerily reminiscent to the way Boyd Varty describes communication with animals.
The way that an animal communicates with you is through a state of presence. If it is unhappy with you, it conveys energy through the way its body shapes. Really amazing trackers are able to read that body language and almost speak back to it in the way they move their body and you can convey a very profound unspoken language.
Most of us are too busy worrying about what we’re going to say next. Slow down and observe the world around you.
Ric <> Boyd
Assuming they haven’t already met, let’s put our faith in the internet and bring these beautiful souls together.
Ric, meet Boyd. Boyd’s definition of mastery is someone who can be himself in any situation. You both embody this sentiment.
Boyd, meet Ric. Ric’s family vacation to South Africa sparked the requisite space and creativity to draft the original Red Ventures belief statements.
I think you all would enjoy sharing stories over a campfire.