Bhubaneswar: In a developing country like India, many youngsters are showing keen interest in entrepreneurship. The Gen X is taking up bigger challenges and many are even ignoring handsome salaries of corporate houses and are taking up new businesses and investing money in start-ups.
To make people aware about entrepreneurship and to show them the right direction, the US Consulate in Hyderabad is organising different workshops and interactive sessions with social entrepreneurship expert Cynthia Hellen. She toured different institutions in Bhubaneswar including Xavier Institute of Management- Bhubaneswar (XIMB), Centurion University and interacted with students and upcoming entrepreneurs.
As a part of her programme in the State capital she also went to the Bakul Library at Satyanagar and shared more about her journey.
Although I started my journey as an entrepreneur at a young age of 16, I had to leave that and take up a corporate job. Later when I understood that there is a lot more to do in life, I decided to get back to entrepreneurship.
--- Cynthia Hellen, American Entrepreneur
After interacting with the people in Odisha, she was amazed to see the excitement among the youth and their eagerness to start their entrepreneurial journey.
“People here are quite impressive, they are superbly talented. The challenges that I see here are quite similar to the challenges back in the USA. I do believe that there are many things which can be shared. There is so much knowledge and resources which can be exchanged. My job is to make a connection or collaboration between citizens here in India and someone in USA,” Hellen stated.
Giving tips to budding entrepreneurs, she said “People always have fear of negative stigma. People think that others might judge them. Entrepreneurship is all about trying and failing time and again before becoming successful in life. One has to be very tough to become a successful entrepreneur. One should understand the challenges and tackle those difficulties and in developing countries like India one has to face a lot of challenges.”