A young person’s ability to form relationships with other persons is one of the critical skills that he/she would need in order to succeed in this Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation (BEF)/FLOW $20 Challenge.
Speaking at the media launch of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation (BEF)/FLOW at FLOW headquarters, Co-Founder of Caribbean Transit Solutions, Khalil Bryan said that the youth discover this on their own as they go through the project, realizing that business is not based on theory, but on the execution and forming relationships with the various groups along the way would help in this regard.
“Seeing the entrepreneurs that are coming out of the $20 Challenge and understanding that business is not a theoretical process that ‘if I put this here...then these things would happen.’ We heard that very, very pointedly last year where the theory was great, but actually implementing it and seeing how it is done, knowing that you have to form a relationship, you leverage your existing network,...to be able to sell your product in a local hardware store, to be able to form relationships so that you can get your product created and being able to understand that that is truly how business is done because it is done often through relationships, [also] of course you leveraging and taking your drive and your passion to go and solve the problem.”
Communication skills play a vital role here as you need to communicate effectively with the different stakeholders who can help you take your product from idea to reality, said Bryan.
“One of the most important things within our business is being able to talk to people who have done it and seen it before. Many of you would leverage your parents, but I think being able to have a network of people that you know are interested in solving problems – so whether it is a peer
mentor, whether it is a mentor at a more senior level and or any other person involved in coming together to organize or sponsor this Challenge, they are the persons that would assist the youth with their projects,” he said.
Being able to rise above disappointments is another key ingredient to succeeding in the $20 Challenge, he stated.
“But of course there is a big part of it which is disappointment and I think that entrepreneurship would not be what it is without the disappointment. But it is not the disappointment that makes the entrepreneur; it is how they recover from the disappointment. We have heard of groups that have started and groups that have broken up... and of course there are the mentors.”
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