Somehow through my University I got invited to attend a special weekend event in the University of Edinburgh campus which would be followed up by a glorious black tie dinner.

“Young Entrepreneurs Summit”, said the invitation, Entre…what? I could hardly read the word, never mind pronounce it, and there was no Google at the time to save my
day, I did not know what the word meant, but I was a student and all expenses were covered, so I was in.

To my delight the weekend turned out to be a fascinating 2 day event. Not only it was great to hang out with other students in the majestic Scottish capital, but as a young twenty something I had an opportunity to listen and like a sponge absorb the ideas shared by some of the brightest minds from various fields of industry and businesses. It was all about young entrepreneurial spirit, choosing the best career path and the prospects of doing something great with our young lives.

Shortly after returning back to London as the sound of bagpipes faded so did the word entrepreneur, but that particular weekend had more impact on my career path than I’d like to admit to.

As a young teen or twenty-something all most of us could have were possibilities. To have someone sharing their life-career experiences, building things and how to do them well was a bonus.

If you are born full of self-belief and have an inherited know-how to everything you touch great, but if you are more like me, in real life, some call it “entrepreneur”, others just “doing their thing” you may need to learn everything about everything, after all that’s how I suppose things get built, jobs get done and done well. So to single out one thing that is essential to a success in real life is to listen and learn. To learn anything someone has to share their mind, experience, lessons
learnt, mistakes made and ultimately successes being achieved.

Learning real life skills at an early age can be one of the most important tool-skills to have. But I mean real life skills. As I type this article, government in Finland have introduced a subject called “a course about working from the coffee shop” where 16 year olds will learn practical skills in the communication, problem solving along with English and mathematics… That’s practical.

And while it is almost inevitable to go through life in business or in any other every day situations without any challenges, having access to practical ideas, skills, and someone generous enough to share their skills to the young will certainly equip young minds with possibilities of a brighter future. We should all share what we know and we should do so generously.

So, whether you need to Google the meaning of the word entrepreneur or not, cheers to everyone who inspires
and shares their life skills and experiences, for as long as they exist together with the new practical course in the working from the coffee shop the future of new twenty-somethings is bright!;)

Tamara Forrest-Smith