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When Sibongile Sambo was a bit of lady she would cease and watch the airplanes fly overhead as she performed within the streets of her hometown, Bushbuckridge, South Africa.
She dreamt that sometime, she would fly too.
She determined to pursue a profession in aviation. Nonetheless, after being rejected by a number of airways for not measuring up, actually — she was too brief to be a flight attendant — it appeared prefer it wasn’t meant to be.
However reasonably than hand over, she dug in. And her dream? Took flight.
At this time she is the founder and CEO of SRS (Sibongile Rejoice Sambo) Aviation and made historical past doing it.
Sibongile Sambo Flies Into the Historical past Books
Sambo is used to listening to the phrase “No.” She doesn’t let it cease her. After failing her first yr of College in Accounting, her advisors begged her to change to nursing or instructing. Sambo refused.
“I mentioned I’d reasonably keep at residence if that was the case. Then I made a decision to register in a B.Admin in industrial psychology and political science,” she advised eNCA.
She aced her courses, graduated, and labored in Human Sources for seven years. However she wasn’t blissful and nonetheless, at the back of her thoughts was that want to pursue her ardour.
In 2004, she lastly determined to go for it. She give up her job and bid on a contract supplying cargo transport for the South African authorities. There was only one not-so-minor catch. She wanted an airplane.
Regardless of having zero expertise in aviation and no collateral, she refused to be grounded.
Rejected by financiers, she bought her home and automotive and used her mom’s and aunt’s pensions to purchase a Russian airplane.
“I by no means considered shedding,” she mentioned of risking all of it. “For me, this was the start of a profitable sport…I used to be simply fired up with ardour seeing this dream turning into a actuality.”
“That voice inside me, that religious voice that claims ‘You’ll make it,’ that’s what I listened to.”
Sibongile Sambo
The voice was proper. Towards overwhelming odds, Sambo purchased the airplane for $800,000, managed to acquire an Air Working Certificates from the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), AND gained the federal government contract.
The Sky’s the Restrict
Breaking into the male-dominated business has been a turbulent journey. However not solely did Sambo break into the business, she broke the glass ceiling.
SRS Aviation is “the primary, and solely, totally empowered, Black women-owned and operated airborne companies enterprise in South Africa,” in response to its web site.
The corporate affords skilled and personalised flight choices together with VIP constitution, air cargo constitution, vacationer transfers, medical evacuations, aerial pictures, and normal air safety companies.
Moreover, it’s also the African distributor of latest and overhauled plane spare components for the industrial, commuter, company, Army, and Cargo Aerospace Industries. And in 2020, it inherited a technical coaching college.
In recognition of her spectacular achievements, Sambo has scored a number of awards over time, together with the Black Girl in Enterprise Awards, Impumelelo High Feminine Entrepreneur of the 12 months, and she or he was additionally named a “Chief of Tomorrow” by Fortune Journal.
And Sambo is nowhere carried out but. The entrepreneur, worldwide speaker, and Fortune 500 mentor continues to chart new heights and not too long ago graduated together with her MBA from the College of Pretoria.
See Your Personal Desires Take Flight
Past her skilled accomplishments, Sambo stays deeply dedicated to empowering ladies in aviation.
As a staunch advocate for gender equality, she has championed initiatives geared toward growing feminine illustration within the business and she or he has helped quite a few ladies get their pilot licenses.
For every other little lady trying to the skies, or to anybody dreaming massive, Sambo has this recommendation:
“I’d say to that little lady, ‘My younger lady, the sky shouldn’t be even the restrict, you are able to do it. In case you have a dream don’t let it die. Maintain the spirit going. Maintain that dream alive. Do one thing about it, don’t procrastinate, don’t sit again.’”
“Don’t hearken to these adverse voices that may inform you which you can’t make it. If any individual tells you you may’t do it, inform them that I can. You’ll be able to attain the skies, you may attain your objectives and go for it.”
Sibongile Sambo
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