He had to endure personal hardships such as growing up without knowing his biological father for so many years and financial challenges which derailed his educational ambitions.
Despite all the different kinds of challenges he came across, he still believes that dreams don’t have an expiration time.
He officially launched his book ‘Your Dream Matters’ at the University of Johannesburg recently.
His book seeks to showcase the importance of chasing ones dream and ambition, also highlighting some of the tools that are vital in reaching the realisation stage.
Pilusa, born and bred at Madhlakazi Village outside Tzaneen, is the Founder of Merofong FM 106.5 based in Gauteng.
His passion for radio was activated in high school, where he started a talk show which was inspired by Oprah Winfrey, Tim Modise (radio veteran) and Given Mkharhi (Capricorn FM and Power FM Founder).
After passing Grade 12 at Mbekwana High School he went to Soweto where he worked in retail stores, because he did not have money to enrol in any tertiary institutions.
His fortunes changed when he was awarded a bursary to study radio at WITS University while he was volunteering at Jozi FM.
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After finishing his qualification he got inspired to start a radio station at Carltonville during the dermacation protests which were in that area.
“When the community was destroying alot of things during that time, I noticed that the people did not have a platform for communication.
“I shared my vision with people from Wits and they helped me attain information about the industry and also mentored me through the process.
“They also assisted with information about MDDA, SENTECH and ICASA,” he explained.
Few years later his station is now the pride of the town and has about 70 000 to 80 000 listenership.
After building nothing to something, he attributes his success firstly to God and also his late mother, Florah Mongwe.
“Observing my mother working in the farms just to provide for me and my siblings, was a great motivation for me to achieve my dreams,” he added.
In the book he acknowledges the importance of people, passion, persistence as some of the vehicles to get you to the end of your goal.
The book has been received well, hence he will be embarking on seminars helping people to start dreaming as well.
“I have a lot of things that I still want to achieve in life including more radio stations and getting into the HR field where I wish to motivate employees on the principles found in the book,” he concluded.
You can follow Pilusa on his Facebook page Alon Pilusa.