The night my wife stood on the back of our couch
NEWSLETTER 007
26 October 2026
Cape Town, 28 October 2023
On the night of 28 October 2023, my wife and I sat on our couch in Cape Town, watching the world's champion rugby team play the World Cup final in Paris. We'd watched them win the quarter-final two weekends before, and the semi-final the weekend after that. Three weekends, three one-point wins. Sure, there was luck involved, but luck cut both ways.
I was perched on the edge of the couch, my nerves shredded, squeaking and screeching at the television. When the final whistle blew, I launched to my left to hug my wife in celebration, and she wasn't there. I looked to my right, and she wasn't there either. I stood up and spun round, and there she was, standing on the back of the couch on one leg, stuck to the wall like a gecko, tears streaming down her face, elation and terror mixed together.
The team had driven her up the wall for the third weekend in a row. It's still one of my favourite moments.
Our entire country was on the equivalent of the back of a couch somewhere that night.
What to take from the story
Scenes like that have played out in homes across South Africa every time the team has won a World Cup, in 1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023. The book says every tournament since 1995, win or lose, has added something to what the country shares, and the wins added the most.
It then says what the team has given the country, which is a way to see its own people and to value what makes each of them different. Rugby has always had a place for every shape and size. The team widened that into a place for talent from every walk of life, across the economic and racial divides. The book calls this recognition. It means seeing what makes another person different and valuing exactly that.
The weather this week
The talent is already here. Around 8.8 million young South Africans aren't in employment, education or training, and the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator calls them the country's largest underused resource. The book also points to gains. Adi Enthoven, in a lecture at Stellenbosch University in November 2025, pointed to ports cleared from twenty-one days of delays to two. Business and government got there by partnering together, with company executives co-leading the teams alongside government.
The book asks for more teams built the way this Springbok one was built, in every sector that has talent it currently overlooks. More green shoots-related figures are in Chapter 1 of Stacked, and the book's at paulsteenkamp.com/books.
Monday Morning
One question for you this week. Where does your team find its people, and who does it overlook?
ONE SMALL
BRAVE THING
This week, you could choose one person on or near your team whose strengths don't get noticed much, and tell them in person what you've noticed in them and what it adds.
Paul Steenkamp Writer. Speaker. Builder.
The book asks for more teams built the way the Springboks built theirs. If you’d like to build yours that way, I can help. I test, teach and embed the Stack with teams and organisations, in masterclasses and workshops that run from a single day to a full programme. Masterclasses and workshops are open for booking in January and February.
Start the conversation at paulsteenkamp.com/contact
You can also RSVP there for the final book launch of the year (on the 29th in Rosebank, Johannesburg) by clicking the book launch registration button.
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