My experiences as I walk the path of entrepreneurship

What an amazing experience it has been ….The day I landed in Honolulu, it didn’t seem like an American Country at all. Everywhere you get to see only Asian faces. I got to know to that in Hawaii a complete new race of people is getting formed who are mix of Japanese, Chinese , Philippines and other Asian countries.

The first day at Changing Faces Program, we had our introduction session but this introduction was done in a manner which I had never seen before. One of our mentor Puanani Burgess, a community development specialist and a regular at Changing Faces asked each one of us to talk about 3 things, the meaning of our name, the community we belong to and one quality that we are gifted with. On face it seems like an easy one but each introduction was combined with stories of childhood, difficulties some women faced in their communities, stories of how they grew inspite of challenges. We could see tears rolling down some faces. I had never seen an introduction like this as after we were done, I knew a lot more about each women and there was an immediate emotional connect.

I met 9 different women each one from different country with a different story to tell, culturally different, looked different, spoke different language but all of us connected so well. We all became good friends in no time and best part was that the whole group stayed together.

Over the next couple of days the program revolved around meeting a lot of local entrepreneurs, undergoing a leadership workshop and a weekend trip to Maui and not to forget a detailed work on our Action Plans for the key issue we are facing in our own businesses.

We met a diverse set of women, local farmers, Mayor of Maui, Governor of Honolulu. Each one had a different perspective  to share on development of women.

Each one of us also got matched with a guest mentor with whom we spent half a day. I loved the way the organizers had handpicked the mentors. The background and work of the mentor was matched so well with what each of the Changing Faces Women were doing that conversations started flowing the moment we met up with our mentor.

Over the weekend in between, we all travelled to Maui Island. The first day was a day full of meetings. We met a lady who runs a lavender farm and has turned it to an attractive and innovative business through creating  various lavender products.  We also met the owner of Pacific BioDiesel followed by a meeting with the Mayor of Maui.

The second day was free for us to enjoy the place. Maui is spectacular. The blue waters everywhere are a treat to the eyes. The girls enjoyed snorkeling in the blue waters whole day. All of us got our own set of sun burns and tan at the end of it. We were back to Honolulu after a fun weekend.

The leadership Development program was spread across 3 days and was conducted by Dr Susan Madsen. Susan is an associate professor at Utah Valley University and an independent leaqdership & change consultant.

I liked the way the complete leadership Program was setup in practical format. We were divided into groups for games, were often given a sheet of paper and color pens to let our thoughts flow in the form of drawings. Each activity gave an insight about our leadership styles and ideas on improving the leadership aspects.

The best part of the program were the individual actions plans that each one of us had been working on even before the program started. During the course of the program, we started with a presentation of our key business issue and a draft action plan. I liked the different perspectives we received as feedbacks from the diverse group. Through out the program, we got a chance to refine our action plans, make it more concrete and doable and also incorporate inputs from everyone. In the end of the program , we represented our refined action plans. I could easily see the changes and clarity in everyone’s plan comparing it to what the participants presented in the starting.

Each day at the program was a day to learn something new. Extremely well executed program which has left each one of us with loads of takeaways and of course lots of new friendships which are definitely going to go a long way……

After a wholesome 2 weeks a Hawaii, I head back to Bangalore with different thoughts and memories to reflect back.

Some pictures from the program.