Ms Choto shares her story about the Teen Entrepreneurship Fair

September 20, 2011

The SA Teen entrepreneur was quite a life time experience, when South Africa hosted one of the International Entrepreneurs Sabirul Islam on the 31^st of August. The main agenda of the SA teen entrepreneurs is to encourage teen entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship skills. The SA teen entrepreneur was founded by Mrs Lydia Zingoni. She placed greater emphasis on the need for starting young and that entrepreneurs need role models to motivate them because of the opportunities in the globe and changing technology. She also mentioned that crime in SA was affecting entrepreneurship development and the need to support the SA teen entrepreneur.

The invited guest Mr Sabirul mentioned that teen years were the best years for creativity. He also defined teenagers as young people who get too much of everything including criticism. He warned “never undervalue the contribution that a young mind can make”. He shared with us tips for being successful as an entrepreneur which include:

· Honesty and integrity - which is doing what you say and saying what you do

· Hardworking - which is the key to success

· Tenacity –the ability never to give up

· Passionate – focus on what you are good at

· Relentlessness - for constant self-improvement and development

Mr Sabirul mentioned that success comes from people around you and that we must put what we learn to action or good use, which most people do not. More so believe in your skills so that you prove people wrong when they criticise you. He also shared with us other tips he learned from his family which include:

· Stay grounded to earn respect

· Never waste time, time is so valuable

· Success is defined differently for different people

He mentioned the 3 Ps for entrepreneurial success which he defines as positivity (the ability to move forward and overcome criticism, passion (to love what you do) and perseverance (continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties).

Lastly he said that if you want to be successful make things that people are prepared to pay for and be inspired by a visionary future not by the broken past.