Where is the Playground for ‘Daydreamers’?

Rooksana Modan has successfully started, grown, funded and sold many businesses. She is an International Transformational Business Mindset Coach, an Empowerment and Motivational International Speaker, a Branding strategist and a Business Broker. She comes from a little town called Lenasia in Gauteng. Her parents were her greatest role models in moulding her into the successful businesswoman she is today.

The values she upholds, inherited from her dad, are to ‘always believe in yourself, never let people’s negative mindset steer you off your pathway, and have clear visions and goals’. Her mum instilled the values of ‘loving what you do in life and also to give back is the greatest joy you can have.’

At the age of 29 she owned her first BP Petrol Station, where she continued with her passion for training and development by multitasking staff at petrol stations. Nine years later she purchased the second petrol station. Now her sole focus is on her passion to help business people expand their mindset and open up new possibilities for their business ideas.

You are a successful businesswoman and made a choice to transform your life in a meaningful way. You sold your business, which was very successful from a transactional point of view and entered the unknown of transformational change. What brought you where you are?

‘I was born, one of four siblings, in Lenasia Johannesburg South Africa 47 years ago to parents who constantly strove to better themselves. Mum started out as a factory worker and ended as a negative developer for Ozalid. Dad was a farm boy who strived to be a bank manager. Growing up, making ends meet was tough for my parents and wearing hand me downs and doing daily household chores taught me the value of hard work. Dad’s motto was “nothing in life is for free, you gotta work hard for what you want in life”, while mum’s wise words “always be true to yourself and make sure you give back to those less fortunate,” still ring in my ears.

My parents divorced when I was in 15 and everything changed. All was lost. At that point I had to get a part time job in order to pay my school fees and later a secretarial course. A life of living from pay-cheque to pay-cheque began. I no longer live hand-to-mouth. My silver lining in this dark cloud is a habit which I maintain to this day . . . awake at 4 am and to bed by 11 pm.

I remember, as a child, elders laughing good-naturedly when I answered the question “what would you like to be when you grow up?” My answer was always serious, “I want to be a millionaire”. They called me a ‘daydreamer’.