Why I founded a Debt Management company and called it Exonerate.

Growing up as a young boy I was very fortunate in that I always got what I wanted, materialistically. Both my parents worked very hard on their businesses and were able to provide myself & my elder siblings with the best money could buy. I say ‘materialistically’ because they weren’t around much, as they were always busy working.

It wasn’t until my high school days that I learned what it was like to struggle, financially that is. I noticed that things weren’t going so well when I’d come home from school to find that there was no electricity. I simply thought that my mom just forgot to pay the bill. When this became a regular occurrence, I knew something was wrong.

Fortunately, things got better, but just like in the world of sales, it was kind of up and down. There would be times when we had more than enough, when we had just enough and there were times when we didn’t have anything at all.

This period started between 1997 and 2001, which happens to be my high school years. In 2001, my matric year, our personal financial economy collapsed, just like the global one did in 2007.

One day I was sitting in my room in our 4-story house which had a lift in it, and the next I was in my sisters 2-bedroom apartment, which she lived in with her family, and sharing a room with my mom.

My mom had lost EVERYTHING, except for one vehicle. What an eye opener!! My life was never to be the same again!!

I will never ever forget that experience, for as long as I live! At least I made sure I didn’t because that day I made a promise to myself. I promised myself that I would never allow my family to go through that humiliation ever, and never allow them to struggle the way we did. I promised myself that I’d walk in the sky again one day.

To this day, I use the word ‘sky walker’ as a remembrance to the promise I made myself over 15 years ago. Why sky walker you may be thinking? (this sadly has no correlation to Star Wars). Well, when you stood on our balcony of that house in Suikerbossie drive, Gordon’s bay, you were literally in the sky, overlooking the ocean.

That’s when my entrepreneurial spirit was born. I started reading Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, and then proceeded to buy literally all of his books. I became a veracious reader on the topic of business and entrepreneurship. I then started to sell goods. I also became familiar with network marketing or MLM marketing as some would know it. I sold everything from chicken & eggs to aloe vera products. Needless to say, I wasn’t very successful, or else I’d be on a tropical island by now sipping on a cocktail somewhere in the world.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. I also learned that in business and investing, you require a certain number of skills, and desire just isn’t enough. However, I also learned that you can have skills, but without a burning desire to aspire to a better life, you won’t really get far.

All of these small failed business ventures took place while I was still employed for Woolworths, one of Africa’s biggest food & textiles retailers. This was my business school. Years later in October of 2013 I resigned to pursue my passion full-time. Sadly, after only 6 months I had blown away all my cash and pension money. I was now dead broke.

I was left with a very important decision. Either I was going to ask for my job back or I was going to start another business and stick it out. I reasoned within myself that this was part of the process, and that the process was testing me, to see whether I would quite or not. I remembered in one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books ‘Before You Quit Your Job’, he talks about the process of becoming an entrepreneur. He makes reference to the fact that if you quit, the process spits you out.

I believe that one of the main reasons entrepreneurs or businesses fail is not because of the lack of a great idea or just not having enough money. I firmly believe that it’s because men & women simply quit way too soon after it becomes tough. They simply can’t handle the pressure anymore and do what they’ve trained their brains to do for years. Go get another job and GO AND WORK FOR MONEY!

I then decided to start buying and selling things online, since this had been a hobby of mine for years, I figured why not start a business around one of my passions. This didn’t pay the bills, at least not all of them. After a year of not making ends meet, I needed to be out of my apartment in Gordon’s bay where I lived with one of my best friends for over 5 years. I decided to move in with my girlfriend at the time who lived in Heathfield.

Months later I remember having a conversation with my mom and she mentioned something we all hear a lot of in life. She told me to stop chasing the money and start helping people, then the money would follow or chase me, instead of me chasing it. It wasn’t the first time I’ve heard this piece of advice, but this time I did something about it.

This is where I decided to do a ‘Debt Counseling’ course through Damlin in Cape Town. The reason I chose this particular course was for two main reasons. Firstly, I could obviously relate to someone who is overindebted. I had experience in dealing with numerous creditors on a weekly basis and had to explain why this or that account hadn’t been paid yet. To be honest, almost all of them were nice and very understanding after I had truthfully explained my situation. I also realized how daunting this must be and that not everyone would be comfortable talking to a creditor or attorney’s office demanding payment in full or face the consequences of legal action being taken against them and have their credit record tarnished!

The second big reason I decided to start this business was that I heard of all the big debt review companies and debt counselors steal and defraud so many consumers who put their faith in them. I just imagined how those people must have felt after they entrusted those debt counselors to get them out of debt. Sadly, they were left in a worse off position than when they started.

I soon realized that this was definitely something I could do. Above all, I genuinely care and want to help people out. I felt I was probably one of the most qualified people to do so anyway.

I finally have a business that has a really solid purpose and there’s so much meaning to my work now. Our vision and mission are on the foundation of solid values, values that I know millions of South Africans will resonate with.

I have big goals and dreams for Exonerate. Not just to help people get out of debt, but to help get them financially free!!

André Misrole

Founder