Email: rbs@h1holdings.co.za

This podcast episode is a review of the book ‘Dream Big’ by Cristianne Correa, plus the long form article ‘Built to Own’ by Dom Cooke of Colossus, and the lessons I took from reading it.

This podcast is about how three young Brazilians started a brokerage in Rio de Janeiro and produced one of the most remarkable investment track records.

They were not from old money. They were not connected to the right families. They had no inherited network, no guaranteed clients, and no safety net if things went wrong. What they had was a simple, almost stubborn belief: that if you hired the best people, gave them ownership of the outcome, and ran a lean operation, you could beat anyone.

Their names were Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Beto Sicupira. Their firm is called 3G Capital. And the model they built is deceptively simple: find a great business, install a great team, implement rigorous cost discipline, give people real ownership, and then wait. Just wait. For decades if necessary.

In 2013 I read a book about 3G Capital called Dream Big, by the Brazilian journalist Christiane Correa for the first time. And I couldn't stop thinking about it and re-reading it. Not because of the scale of what they built — though that is extraordinary. But because of the simplicity. Three people. One philosophy. Fifty years of compounding. They built the largest beer business in the world starting with the Brahma beer business generating an IRR of 22% per annum over 37 years – better or equivalent to Berkshire Hathaway’s long-term compounding record.

And I kept asking myself: What is the equivalent of that for my business? What is our ‘Brahma’, the foundational investment that could define the next thirty years? And are we building the culture, the incentives, and the talent pipeline to make it happen?

This podcast is the result of that question. It's a biography of 3G Capital, the story of how they built what they built, why it worked, and where it didn't.

At the end I reflect on the 3G Playbook which is summarised below :

1. Dream Big
2. Hire the Best People. Reward and incentivise them on a meritocratic basis
3. Operational discipline with Zero Based Budgeting to emphasis frugality
4. Be patient and long-term in your investment views
5. Learn from the Best Mentors and Companies

Buy the book:

Amazon: Dream Big — Cristiane Correa

Built to Own. Dom Cooke, Colossus Magazine February 2026.

Email: rbs@h1holdings.co.za

This podcast episode, hosted by Reyburn Hendricks, is a review of the book ‘Patrice Motsepe - An Appetite for Disruption’ by Janet Smith and the lessons taken from it.

"I recorded this episode in January 2025 so any references to prices will be in relation to this date. In 2020 Janet Smith wrote the book Patrice Motsepe: An Appetite for Disruption. In it she tells the story of how a mining lawyer with no capital, no track record and no bank willing to lend him a rand became the first Black billionaire in South Africa. The part of the book that caught my attention most was the 'Suitcase Man' phase, the nickname Motsepe earned travelling mine to mine, running an entire business out of a briefcase because no bank would give him working capital. The book does not go deep on the deals themselves, so I went into the IPO prospectuses myself to reconstruct what he actually did.

What he did was this. His first business failed. He rebuilt as a mining lawyer, and out of that work came the proprietary insight that would define everything after it: successful mines are lean. In 1997, with no bank behind him, he bought loss-making gold shafts from AngloGold for R38 million on vendor financing. He halved management, ran the shafts 353 productive days a year instead of 276, put workers on profit-share and made them pay. ARM Gold listed in 2002 and valued his stake at R3.2 billion. He merged it into what became the world’s fifth-largest gold miner. Then he took R200 million of pre-IPO dividends, levered it, and bought into Sanlam, a position worth roughly R15 billion by 2013.

These early transactions established his fortune and set up every diversification that followed. The impressive thing, for me, is that he did it himself. No family capital. All bootstrapping.

At the end I reflect on The Motsepe Playbook from his early deal-making years:

• Rule 1 : Develop a proprietary insight
• Rule 2 : Look widely and listen for the best ideas and insights
• Rule 3 : Work hard and get really good
• Rule 4 : Set high standards
• Rule 5 : Hire good experienced management and back them."