After panic and worry over his whereabouts, entrepreneur Sibusiso Ngwenya has been found. The 27-year-old owner of famous sock brand, Skinny Sbu Socks is at a psychiatric clinic, getting the help he needs to get his mind right. After a difficult year of loss in business and personal life, things got to be too much for him.
WORRYING TWEET
“Honesty I feel like giving up now. I’ve used all I have, sold my car to save the business, use my personal cash I make from speaking and endorsements to grow this sock business. Things are not as fancy. I’m tired, I’m drained. I’m just here,” he tweeted before he disappeared. This tweet raised eyebrows and came as a shock to his followers, many of whom look up to him and those that he looks up to. His best friend, Tshepo Mohlala who is usually joined at the hip with Sbu received a startling call from his family saying he had not been seen for days. After that tweet on Monday evening, they went out to talk things through over dinner. Little did he know that Sbu would go missing the next day.
GETTING HIM HELP
After four days of relentless search for him, he wrote on Facebook, “I feel despondent now especially after how 2017/18 has rolled out for me, firstly with selling most of my possessions mid-2017 to keep the business running, having to down side my team made me feel like a failure, office being locked and the biggest contributor to all of this is losing my dearest grandmother two days before the end of 2017. As if that was not enough 30 days after the passing of my gran I got into a near death car accident in my company car that left me paralyzed for three months.” For five years, Sbu started his sock business that has been sold in major retail stores such as Stuttafords and Markham. While on the outside the success of his business looks glorious, the reality proves otherwise.
BUSINESS PRESSURE
Sbu’s story has sparked a conversation on social media about depression, especially for young entrepreneurs. Production company owner, Legend Manqele, tweeted his own personal experience with pressures in business, “I too am holding on to my staff with a thread at this point.” for the first 3 month of 2018 meaning that I spent the first quarter of this year not making money...
