In a world that measures leadership through titles and accomplishments, there are few who recast success as the lives they change and the legacies they build. Lerato Sithole is one such person-a visionary businesswoman, committed mother, and fervent champion of the transformative impact of purpose-driven leadership in Africa.
Her path, one of resilience, spirituality, and an unyielding dedication to serving others, provides a template for genuine leadership that traverses the divides of business, family, and social responsibility.
Early Life: Shaped in Adversity, Grounded in Love
Lerato’s tale starts in the fire of apartheid South Africa, the child of teenage parents whose lives were forged by both the restrictions and the unassuming courage of their time. Her mother, a young nurse, took the selfless act of working hundreds of kilometers away to pay for Lerato’s education at an elite Catholic school-a move that instilled Lerato with the virtues of grit, resilience, and unspoken strength. Her father, a successful lawyer, was distant, but his legacy of drive and success left a lasting imprint on her psyche. However, it was Lerato’s paternal grandmother who provided the unconditional love and faith that would form the foundation of her self-esteem and ambition.
Lerato was exposed to adversity at a young age. As the sole Black pupil in her matric year, she encountered overt disbelief and bias. Instead of being brought down by others’ skepticism, she took solace in her heritage, the sacrifices of her family, and her own inner purpose. “I didn’t rise to prove them wrong, I rose to prove me right,” she remembers-a phrase that would see her through the countless challenges and successes ahead.
The Crucible of Loss: Grief, Faith, and Transformation
The course of Lerato’s life was forever changed in 2004, when she and her husband, Solly, lost their four-year-old son, Khensile, in a devastating car accident. The grief of this loss was intense, but it proved to be a turning point that redefined her attitude toward motherhood, leadership, and life in general. Instead of using grief to crack their relationship, Lerato and Solly embraced their faith, opting for healing over blame and presence over avoidance.
This time of grief led Lerato to a position of quiet and reflection. It intensified her compassion, heightened her intuition, and invited her to lead with more presence and purpose. “Leadership is not about power,” she thinks, “it’s about presence in pain.” The loss taught her that leadership is shaped not in times of victory, but in embracing the walk through pain with openness and elegance.
Corporate Rise and Purpose Awakens
Lerato’s professional life is a testament to her intellectual stiffness, strategic intensity, and unshakeable dedication to excellence. From humble beginnings, she rose through the ranks to become a Senior Partner at Deloitte, overcoming the intrigues of corporate existence with ease. And yet, even at the height of her success, Lerato felt a greater calling-a need to marry her work with her values and drive lasting change beyond the confines of the boardroom.
In 2016, when her corporate career peaked, Lerato suffered from burnout-a call to reset. Leaving work for a three-month sabbatical, she began the process of self-renewal, committing herself to practices of silence, journaling, prayer, and contemplation. This is where she re-read Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” not as a book, but as a model of personal and group transformation. This meeting reignited her Definite Major Purpose and led her on a journey towards entrepreneurship and social change.
The Birth of Think and Grow Rich Africa: A Vision for Continental Transformation
To step out of the comfort of a high-profile corporate career and establish Think and Grow Rich Africa was a bold and defining move for Lerato. Having acquired the exclusive license from the Napoleon Hill Foundation, she started an organization committed to unlocking the potential of the African mind and creating economic emancipation through mindset change.
To Lerato, Think and Grow Rich Africa is not just a business-it’s a movement built on the perception that “the African mind is fertile ground for greatness.” Her dream is to wake up a continent, inspiring people to not only dream but to bring those dreams into reality, to transition from survival to legacy. The organization’s programs, mentorship programs, and leadership thinking have influenced thousands, challenging a new generation of African leaders to tap their inherent potential and live lives of purpose and consequence.
Africa Moms Rising: Motherhood as a Catalyst for Change
Lerato’s activism is not just confined to the world of business but in the very core of family and community. Spurred by her involvement in the Hollywood movie “Moms Rising,” she created Africa Moms Rising-a movement committed to empowering mothers throughout the continent to give birth to businesses, foundations, and healing spaces. Motherhood for Lerato is not a constraint but a superpower-a source of strategic mind, emotional intelligence, and stamina.
Through Africa Moms Rising, Lerato has empowered so many mothers to own the totality of their selves, to show that one can be nurturing and ambitious, present at home and powerful in the world. Her message is unequivocal: “You do not have to choose between being a mother and being a leader, between ambition and authenticity. You can be both. You can be all of it. You are all of it.”
Leadership Philosophy: Wholeness, Alignment, and Authenticity
Underlying Lerato’s leadership philosophy is the belief that greatness is not accomplished by compartmentalizing one’s life but through wholeness and alignment. She eschews the dichotomy between professional success and personal fulfillment, opting instead for a leadership model that brings together purpose, faith, and generational impact.
Lerato leads with caution, openness, and an abiding faith in the greatness of others. She mentors out of the belief that “greatness is within everyone-it just needs the right mindset to rise.” Her style is marked by a readiness to pose tough questions, to seek alignment over balance, and to create spaces where authenticity is prized over conformity.
In the boardroom, Lerato is unapologetically herself-a leader, a visionary, a coach, and a mother. She pushes corporate rooms to transcend tokenistic inclusion towards real transformation, demanding that “the boardroom doesn’t just need women. It needs mothers.” For Lerato, the skills developed through motherhood-strategic thinking, crisis management, emotional intelligence, empathy and non-judgemental approach-are not distractions, but key strengths that for successful leadership.
Family, Faith, and the Power of Partnership
Behind Lerato’s public success there is a solid base of personal relationships and an unshaking faith. Solly, her husband, has been her key mastermind, giving support, elegance, and toughness along their mutual path. As a pair, they have shared the hardships of parenting, grief, and aspirations, raising a family with the foundation of love, courage, and mutual regard.
Lerato’s mothering is characterized by presence, appreciation, and intentionality. She has homeschooled her five children, invested in quality time, and endeavored to teach them values of belief, courage, and purpose. Her thoughts about home life reflect a rich awareness of legacy-not in material form, but in the “invisible inheritance” of values, beliefs, and convictions imparted through ordinary living.
Legacy and Impact: A Message to Africa and Beyond
For Lerato, legacy is not defined by what one leaves behind, but by what one leaves within others. Her life’s work is a testament to the power of mindset, the importance of faith in God, and the transformative potential of purpose-driven leadership. She is committed to challenging narratives that diminish African potential, insisting that “wealth is our birthright. Success is our inheritance. Greatness is in our DNA.”
Through Think and Grow Rich Africa and Africa Moms Rising, Lerato has developed platforms for empowerment, healing, and generational transformation. Her reach is greater than her personal spheres, compelling a continent to recover its wealth-both financial and spiritual-by the power of the mind’s transformation.
Lerato’s leadership is marked by a unique combination of strength and vulnerability, ambition and humility, vision and presence. She personifies a model of leadership that is complete, genuine, and profoundly human-a model that inspires others to lift up, not by leaving their authentic selves behind, but by grounding deeply in their purpose.
Championing Women and Mothers in Leadership
Lerato is an outspoken voice in calling for corporate culture to adapt and honor the realities of motherhood more effectively. She contests the unwritten rules that women must contract certain aspects of themselves to fit into leadership positions, that motherhood is a liability rather than an unparalleled strength.
Her work is based on lived experience-the midnight wake-ups, the school crises, the constantly changing priorities of child-rearing. She urges mothers to no longer hide, to bring their entire selves into each room, and to understand the strategic, emotional, and leadership capabilities developed through parenting as valuable resources in the workforce.
Lerato’s vision is for a world in which women, and particularly mothers, are empowered to lead without apology, to bridge their personal and professional selves, and to embody wholeness for the generations to come. She thinks that genuine transformation will arise not from greater representation, but from a core redefinition of what leadership actually looks like.
The Heart of Home: Finding Restoration in Family
In the midst of the pressures of leadership and entrepreneurship, Lerato finds her deepest healing in the holy simplicity of home. As her children are maturing into adulthood, she treasures the moments of communion-the phone calls, the long conversations, the quiet presence that grounds her in the midst of the din of the world.
Her friendship and companionship with Solly is still a source of grounding and joy, an example of the sustaining power of common purpose and reciprocal support. For Lerato, success is not measured by the awards or accolades, but by the lives she has nourished, sheltered, and journeyed alongside into maturity.
Living a Legacy of Purpose, Faith, and Love
Lerato’s life and career provide a compelling vision for leadership in the 21st century-one based in purpose, sparked by faith, and supported by love. Her path from the difficulties of apartheid South Africa to the summit of corporate achievement and entrepreneurial influence is a witness to the potential of resilience, faith, and intentionality.
Through her pioneering endeavors, Lerato has enabled countless others to discover their definite major purpose, accept their wholeness, and live meaningful and impactful lives. Her maternal advocacy, her passion for generational transformation, and her unshakeable belief in Africa’s greatness have made their own impression on everyone who reads her story.
In her own words, “Legacy is not a statue carved in stone. It is a reflection that others see in themselves when they hear your story.” Her legacy is one of transformation, courage, and hope-a legacy that each of us can be challenged by to rise, to lead, and to live with purpose.
