Do Not Allow Defeat to Conquer You

Sometimes, the best lessons in varsity do not come from the lecturers, but from the people you are randomly assigned to work alongside.

This year, I was grouped with Sibahle Sithole for our Platform Development module. The task was massive. We had to build three full-scale projects from scratch. We kicked things off with a web app called DUT Lost and Found, a project I am still proud of and plan to showcase soon. Then came the mobile app, a Bus Tracking System.

But the real test of character arrived with our third project: Game Development.

If you have ever studied computer science or IT, you know the immense pressure of game dev. It gets to a point where the frustration is so high that the temptation to just buy a completed project becomes a real conversation among students. We were exhausted, we were behind, and the pressure was on.

This is where Sibahle’s leadership truly shined. He shut down the idea of taking the easy way out. Through a phone call that shifted my entire perspective, he told me: “Do not allow defeat to conquer you.”

He reminded us that we could still make it happen our way. We pushed through, pulled the long hours, and built something that was genuinely ours.

He recently reflected on this exact experience in a LinkedIn post, and what stood out to me was a quote he shared from Peter Drucker: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

That perfectly encapsulates who he is as a leader. In his post, he also wrote about how humbling yourself to your team’s feedback is not weakness, but rather the job itself. He understands that leadership is not about being the loudest. It is about patience, trust, humility, and doing the right thing even when it costs you.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with him. It was not just about passing a module or building a game. It was about First Principles thinking, holding your ground, and leading with integrity. I know there is more collaborative work for us in the future.

Read his full post on LinkedIn

Sibahle Sithole on LinkedIn