My Fall Cost Me R30 Million and Almost Myself | Tbo Touch on Money, Mistakes and Meaning

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:15:29 +0000

What do you do when you lose R30 million and your reputation is on the line? Tbo Touch, iconic broadcaster and serial entrepreneur, opens up about building a radio empire, fighting the mobile networks, and what failure really taught him about character, courage, and comeback.

From the pain of public scrutiny to the decision to walk away from SABC at the peak of his career, Touch reveals how he turned personal scars into stepping stones and why he now lives by one principle: bet on yourself.

He reveals:
◽️ Why failure isn’t a punishment — it’s preparation.
◽️ The R30 million loss that nearly broke him.
◽️ How building Touch HD became his real MBA.
◽️ Why returning to SABC wasn’t weakness — it was wisdom.
◽️ The power of principled exit and principled return.
◽️ Why his kids need more township grit than gated safety.
◽️ The mindset shift that turned losses into legacy.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:24 Why I said yes to this topic
01:03 Failure is the blade that polishes the diamond
03:04 My grandmother taught me to take leaps of faith
05:00 The one person who keeps me grounded
08:00 Why I took my kids out of a private school
15:29 The failure that taught me the most
20:00 What it cost to fight the mobile networks
24:00 When everything started collapsing
31:17 How I returned to SABC
37:30 Why you must love performance reviews
44:00 Why I walked away from SABC again — and came back
48:00 Teaching my kids about estate planning
51:06 I am a canvas of 100 million black dots
57:04 How to raise kids who fail well

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Cheers to Failure is a live podcast about the stories we were never supposed to tell. The ones that cracked us open. The ones we stayed silent about. The ones that made us.

Raise a glass. Say the quiet thing out loud.

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