At the core of Jack Phalane’s ambitions is a personal quest to be a better human being.

“I want to grow in becoming a better person in everything I do,” he says. “I don’t want to be one thing at home and one thing at the office.”

The South African commercial attorney credits God as the central source for his striving to live an ethical, meaningful, and productive life.  

“I don’t regard myself as religious, but I regard myself as having a relationship with God,” he says. “That shapes all that I do and the how part of everything that I do.”

Born in Johannesburg where his mother, Emily, was a domestic worker, Phalane was actually raised and educated in rural Limpopo, the northernmost province of South Africa. He, his brother and his cousin lived with their grandmother, Maria, who emphasized the importance of education even though she had no formal education and was strict about the boys completing their homework.

“She didn’t allow us to be lazy,” recalls Phalane. “Being lazy was not an option with her.”

During school holidays, Phalane would visit his mother in Johannesburg, which is more than 200 miles away. He describes his mother as someone who refused to take no for an answer when it came to her son and who was prepared to do whatever had to be done to make sure he had a chance at a better life.

“I saw her working so hard to make sure we got the basic stuff,” he says.

He took a valuable lesson from his mother and grandmother that he has carried into his law practice.

“We need to do what needs to be done,” he says. “That’s how I approach life and everything there is. If there’s something that needs to be done, you need to find a way of getting it done. Because if you don’t do it, it’s not going to happen.”