Refilwe Ledwaba loves learning new things but with South Africa’s first black female helicopter pilot already a pioneer in so much, what life lesson have a pair of chopsticks taught her?
Transcript
Hi, I'm Dhruti Shah, and this is my podcast Have you thought about? I'm a writer, journalist and poet, and I love finding out about what passions and interests people are pursuing, especially if they're blending together these interests in unusual ways. In each edition, I'm going to chat with someone I find particularly interesting. And who has been able to fit things together
Refilwe Ledwaba:I always get that question a lot. And it's quite an interesting story. Because there's a traditional way of falling in love with something. And there's a sort of a non traditional way. And I would like to think mine was non-traditional, because with aviation, you always hear stories of a young person growing up, looking up the sky, or building, you know, small aeroplane or
Refilwe Ledwaba:and I was on a flight where there was a female pilot, and I was like, Okay, so there's a room for female pilots, but still not that the one that looks like me in a way. And it was only when I started as an air hostess in an airline that it really sort of cemented- I think we don't realise some of the passions that we have. Not because we don't have a passion for whatever particular because we
Dhruti Shah:You really are fearless. And the thing that I really like about you is that you just don't keep your fearlessness or your skills even to yourself. Because you are a social entrepreneur, you founded Girls Fly Africa, you've been encouraging girls to get into STEM careers. But why is it so important to you to take that fearlessness, and encourage others to areas that perhaps maybe
Refilwe Ledwaba:It's also such an interesting question, because it's, you know, sometimes, you know, we get answers like, you know, how it makes you feel or how you want to make the world a better place. It has a lot for me to do with my values and how I was brought up so I don't look at it is you know, I keep on giving. It's actually in me, because that's how I you know, I grew up. I grew up
Dhruti Shah:I think you're slightly, understating yourself, you have multiple fellowships, you are a global leader. And I can see why people's eyes light up when they are in your presence. My eyes light up in your presence. But the other thing I think is really fascinating about you, and tapping on what you just said, is that you are curious, you are a lifelong learner. I mean, you're studying
Dhruti Shah:when I was going through my training, I had a lot of challenges. Being one of the first female, it comes with a lot of responsibilities, you literally have to pave, you know, pave the way, but because of that upbringing, I always looked at the challenges, like okay, what can I do about it, instead of Oh, my word, this is like, in some, you know, it's so big. That grounding, almost, not only helped
Dhruti Shah:important for me to go back to make sure that I'm accessible to those young people. Because sometimes when we get pedestals, we think 'no, I have to know sit on that stage and look down on people'. That's not what we did in our community, you go to the people, you work with them. And for me, it was quite important that I become accessible to those to these young people; that I answered their
Refilwe Ledwaba:I love learning. I remember, as a young person, I used to just open books, I love books, and it just used to keep me keep going. I like learning about new things; curious about things. When I see that there's a problem that I can't solve, I go to school and research. And it's quite interesting. So at the moment, I'm studying inclusive innovation and technology. And I went
Refilwe Ledwaba:that's something that I do, I thrive when I study, I'm happy when I'm studying, most importantly, what I'm doing as well, it might sounds crazy, but I want to continue solving, you know, the world's problem, but on a major scale now. And for me, that's an avenue because I love doing what I'm doing. I love researching, and I love going into communities and talking to people, and academia gives me
Dhruti Shah:thinking about things to think about. So doing an audit of your life of your time, is that something you regularly do, or this was something actually as part of this inclusive innovation that you're going to sort of try out as a new technique, and perhaps do more regularly.
Refilwe Ledwaba:It's something that I've started doing, like about two years ago, I was always tired. And I was in addition, we'll call it being behind the drag curve, being behind the track, drag curve is you know, the aircraft is ahead of so as a pilot, you have to be ahead of the aircraft, because you have to anticipate. So we don't want to be behind the drag curve. Because when you're
Refilwe Ledwaba:with the challenge because you are ahead. In aviation, when emergency come when you're ahead of the trek, you're ready because your mind is set in such a way that you are really ahead of the aircraft. So with me, and how do I become ahead of my own life? And in such a way that whenever something comes, I'm actually ready. So I use the same concept, what are the things that I need to do? How do I
Refilwe Ledwaba:So in your personal life as well, you need to have all those, you know, you to start creating those times, where they asked and think, what is the end goal? What is it that you want to do for this week, let's say if it's academia, it's that priority, then you shut down everything. And that's what you focus on. So I'm starting to use some of the techniques that I've learned in the aviation
Dhruti Shah:It's that this is amazing. I'm like, where's your book Refilwe? Where is it? I mean, I know you're in books, but I want the book of this is. Now this is a great self help guide. And it ties in so well with what you're talking about with the academia with the inclusive innovation, because this is stuff that you know, and actually, this is stuff that resonates so. So well, I'm going
Refilwe Ledwaba:You need to challenge yourself. And once you do it a couple of times, and you you get this rewarding feeling of challenging yourself, and it starts with small little things. I'm gonna give you an example. And I'm gonna be honest, I know it's going to sound funny. So I had a problem with using chopsticks, right? So I'm like, you know what, I can't, for some reason, I'll, you know,
Refilwe Ledwaba:well, the rewards, the feedback that we get from doing things that comfortable. In a way we think they're much bigger, because people are saying, Oh, this is so nice, because you do it so well. That's something that you've done. Now, when you move from the comfortable to uncomfortable, it's something that you haven't mastered. It's something that you haven't done. Now with, you know, the fear of
Refilwe Ledwaba:people, they're like, oh, you can't do that. Okay, cool, we should do that with you. So I turn something that is very uncomfortable into something fun. And in that way, that negative that you expect from people, it's not there anymore. That's the other thing. I think one of the most important thing as a leader as well, right, it takes courage to move from comfort to uncomfortable, but you also
Refilwe Ledwaba:that so I can change certain things that I didn't like, but because I was so conscious about speaking, and it was so uncomfortable for me, due to a lot of various factors. And I was at a university where I mean, I was at the University of Cape Town where people that went to that university can speak a certain way, they are very assertive, you know, they come out. And I've seen people that were
Refilwe Ledwaba:they voted me in. But it is what it is. And whatever that I had said that I was going to do, like I said to them, the rest that I was at will be the best in sports or something like that. So I became a sports rep. And it was the best in sports in the history of you know, in that year. And for me, there was a lesson as well, I got out of my comfort zone. I did stand in front of people, I did
Dhruti Shah:Wow. I mean, I'm literally so awestruck, and it's absolute amazing. You are travelling, but also not able to travel, you know, when we had the pandemic, you were still maintaining Areyestories, I might be pronouncing that incorrectly. So let's make sure we pronounce it correctly. Tell, tell us a little bit more about how that came about. And how you maintain that because I want
Refilwe Ledwaba:So Areye it's a Sotho word, it means 'let's go'. The name came as a result of, you know, when I was growing up, we had like, young people early in the morning, we'll go and call each other and we'll say areye, and we'll go and create magic, either play in the streets, or, you know, go up the mountain and do a lot of stuff. So it has a lot of meaning. So it means let's go. So and
Refilwe Ledwaba:whatever, I spoke about vegetable garden, on my Areye, the stuff that I do, that I didn't know, during the pandemic, and, you know, so and so. So it was, it was meant to say, Yes, this is where we are. And this is where we find ourselves. But this can't be the end of our stories, this can't be the only stories, this can't be the end of it, there's a whole lot of other ways that we can, you
Dhruti Shah:The wonderful Refilwe Ledwaba who is forever curious and brings together innovation, aviation, travel and more. Do you have an interdisciplinary life because I would love to hear from you. And perhaps we can chat in this podcast that goes with my newsletter, which is called Have You Thought About and can be found via www.dhrutishah.com. Please join me next time for a fun