Tim Hogins grew raised in a South African township as an impoverished youngster. Every weekend, he watched kids rush into buses bound for Sun City, knowing he couldn’t afford to join them on such enjoyable vacations.
He did, however, promise himself that one day he would develop parks that anyone could attend, especially disadvantaged children like himself. Hogins worked for the next 30 years to make his idea a reality.
But, the journey was not without incident. He began as a security guard before moving into IT, being laid off, and then starting his own firm from scratch. He used to help his parents, who were traders, sell when he was a kid. His father had a café that sold burgers and chips, while his mother cooked. He had no choice but to assist his parents in selling in order to pay his fees or feed.
“I matriculated in 1996, and even though I had an exemption, tertiary education wasn’t on the cards for me,” he told Entrepreneur. “We just couldn’t afford it.”
Hogins was not discouraged by his inability to obtain a university education. His relative told him about a free four-week security guard training school. He worked hard on the course and eventually got a job as a security guard at a company.
He took another free course teaching COBOL, a back-end technology used by the financial services industry, two years into his work as a security guard. He had no programming skills at the time.
“I’d never touched a computer — but I knew how valuable these skills were, and here was an opportunity being handed to me,” he told Entrepreneur.
His first try did not go as planned, but he successfully completed the course on his second attempt. He worked his way up from security guard to IT professional with a modest corporation. Later in his career, he worked at Dimension Data, EOH, and SITA.
While working for others, Hogins yearned to be his own boss, but money was an impediment. He began investigating the many business opportunities available to him. He was later laid off, but this allowed him the opportunity to focus on his business adventure. He originally founded Green Outdoor Gyms (GOG), which earned over $160,000 (3 million South African Rand) in its first year of operation, according to Entrepreneur.
“That retrenchment catapulted me into business. From then on, my full focus became outdoor gyms,” he said. Within six years, he installed over 1,000 outdoor gyms for local municipalities around South Africa.
He told GQ that he got the money to start GOG by selling his car and borrowing money from his wife. GQ claimed in 2021 that Hogins’ GOG business had grown into a thriving enterprise with an annual revenue of more than R150M ($8m).
“I’m always few years ahead of the industry (visionary thinking) – I ended up funding all my initiatives as nobody was willing to risk with me,” said Hogins, who is now not only into lifestyle brands but pharmaceuticals and real estate development. He is also a philanthropist helping South Africa’s young people.