Remarks by
Jean Ricot Dormeus, OAS Representative
Business Lab Focused on Renewable Energy and Business Innovation
November 12, 2018
CEO Lowell Porter,
Facilitators David Slyper and Mosh Harel,
Members of the Business Community,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The cause that assembles us today drives us to a future of innovation and prosperity. The word business alone awakens ideas of daring and mastering in our minds, as well as feelings of excitement and progress in our hearts. Therefore, we are privileged to attend and support this Business Lab focused on renewable energy and business innovation. We are glad to offer a section of our youth a master key to unlock the door of opportunities and transformative undertakings. We are delighted to uphold the cause of business creation and development, service to mankind, and contribution to society.
The Organization of American States (OAS), in cooperation with its affiliate Young Americas Business Trust (YABT), embraces such a cause as a stepping stone toward integral development. And integral development stands as one of the pillars of our organization. A couple of years ago, through another business workshop, we placed in the hands of about 30 youth the tools for success in business. We trust that Guyana will soon harvest an abundant crop of wealth creation from the seeds of knowledge and motivation we have been planting.
I would like to congratulate and thank the Government of Guyana, in particular the Ministry of Business and the Small Business Bureau, for leading this workshop. Special hats off to Ms. Shamane Headley for coordinating this event with success. Also, I thank the Government of Israel and the Israel’s Agency for International Development (MASHAV) for their cooperation.
The mere presence of two leading business training experts from Israel, David Slyper and Mosh Harel, guarantees a satisfying outcome to this workshop. Because we know they will impart to you privileged participants practical knowledge and a sense of mission that will not leave your conscience alone until you create and thrive your business. In fact, you will learn how to generate viable and creative ideas to start and develop new businesses and income generating projects. You will get tips to bring about and harness innovation. All this through a methodology of learning by doing. That is to say that the skills will stick if you keep practicing day in day out.
The business workshop in Guyana today does not stand isolated. Throughout the world, dreamers of service and prosperity benefit from business training in the framework of the Global Entrepreneurship Week. This Global Entrepreneurship Week contributes to create societies of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens contributing to the improvement of their communities. Guyana has now a stronger foundation to become a beacon in the Caribbean, not just because of the advent of the oil sector, but because you the youth will use your minds, your energy and your talents to serve the world through you businesses.
In a sense, whether you are gainfully employed or run your own business, you are in business. Because to make money, you have to serve, please and create value for your only customer, meaning your employer, or your customers as many as they may be. Make no mistake, competition is the name of the game. If you slack off, offer deficient products or poor customer service, someone else or another company stands ready to make a better offer and replace you.
Therefore we need to keep developing ourselves, our products, our services, in short our businesses. It is a challenging, but exhilarating journey that allows you to make an impact on your community, your country and the world.
If this business lab does one thing for you, it will be to kindle your passion and courage to create, develop and refine. And your reward will flow not necessarily from a lofty destination, but from overcoming daily challenges, achieving short term goals and persevering one more day.
This business lab dovetails nicely with the green economy policy that the Government of Guyana has spearhead. It focuses on renewable energy in a time when our region, due to climate change, experiences more disastrous hurricanes, rising sea level and changes in weather patterns that affect agriculture and food production. And we know that reducing our carbon footprint helps us to control such occurrences. Therefore, we resort more and more to renewable energy in terms of solar, wind, and geothermal.
We encourage you to craft a better future when we encourage you to focus on renewable and clean energy and business innovation. These sectors carry great opportunities.
As you embark on your new business journey, I see this new stage in your life like a baby experience. Now you are learning to sit and crawl. If you do not handicap yourself with a deficient mindset, you will soon stand and take your first steps in business. Will you walk with confidence at your first attempts? You wish. You will fall again and again. However, if each time you fall, you pick yourself up, dust off and go your way without giving up, shame or discouragement, before you know it, you will be running. You may even aspire to become the Hussein Bolt of your field.
As you strive to serve your fellow Guyanese and the world, let your challenges bring to your mind the words of Friedrich Nietzsche “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
With such a thrilling perspective before you, it is a matter of time before the Government of Guyana, the Organization of American States, the Young Americas Business Trust and our partners clap for your success and declare: well done young man, well done young woman, you deserve the prosperity you have conquered by dint of courage, acquisition of knowledge and skills, and perseverance. You will then discover that in whatever business field you have put your heart, the sky is the limit.
Thank you and God bless you!
