I would argue, the wheel.

And I’d bet whoever discovered it was easier to move heavy objects using a circular disc would have seen just one use for their hugely consequential invention. So often, a solution to one problem has multiple downstream impacts which only become apparent in the fulness of time. Imagine a world where the wheel had not been invented: there would be no mechanization, so no large-scale agriculture, nor factories, nor our modern concept of time as clocks would never have been created and because they were critical in navigation for the ancient mariners, the world might never have been colonized and populated in the way it happened. In short, there would be no cities, no high-rise buildings, considerably fewer people, a most would probably still believe the world to be flat.

As a valued subscriber, I am really excited to share that I have taken that same principle, that one thing can have enormous unforeseen consequences, so I challenged some famous friends to answer one question and from that compiled a wonderful collection of essays about how to fix South Africa.

The book is called The One Thing and represents the best ideas of about 100 contributors, all of whom I asked to answer this question: “If you were president for half an hour and could do just one thing that would have a positive long-term impact on South Africa, what would it be?”

It’s hardly surprising that the largest number of contributions are ideas on how to address the crisis in education, there are others who understand the power of hope and have ways in which we can demonstrate to millions of people that the future can indeed be better than the present, purely by making better decisions around the economy and the opportunities that would become available if the country’s money was better managed.

It’s in the final stages of production. In it you will hear from Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers about the first step he would take in driving the turnaround of a country, former EOH CEO Stephen van Coller on the first thing you need to do to deal with corruption, Redi Tlhabi on her one thing and there is one idea that is so hardcore, it would make even Kim Jong Un blush!

And yes, I contribute my one thing too, and challenge you to think about what your one thing would be, if you were president for 30 minutes. What small action would you take that would have a long term compounding effect to make the future better than the present?

It hits the shelves on 1 October, and this is a sneak peak of what it will look like!