18yr old entrepreneur wins “Growing up C.E.O.” trip
Youth Business Trust Belize is a program which offers assistance to entrepreneurs in areas of loan financing, training and mentoring. Among the many that have participated, one was chosen for the 2009 Growing Up C.E.O. program. Ricardo Gongora, a second year student at St. John’s College Junior College, was selected to attend the three-day Inner City one hundred conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Today News Five caught up with the eighteen year old, who shared his experiences at the conference and what will become of his first business venture.
Ricardo Gongora, Winner, Growing Up C.E.O.
“The business, locally it was known as Baby Wagons and that’s the criteria that I got selected on. And we started selling a lot of electronics; computer games, consoles, a lot of video games like PS2, X-Box. Then we moved on to selling a lot of purses, hand bags and sometimes shoes and eventually, what we’re selling in the current store are a lot of jewelry; mostly fashion jewelry.”
Jose Sanchez
“How did you know when you were selected for this award?”
Ricardo Gongora
“Well, first of all, the Youth Business Trust, I was referred by them; specifically Miss Dionne Chamberlain, and I really felt excited because it was an experience that I could just go away and meet a lot of new people, do a lot of networking, see what different cultures were like and that’s what I accomplished over there. The liquidation; I found out I was going to—after applying and getting accepted, I’m going to get a scholarship to go study in August over in the US at St. Louis University. So what I needed to do, I needed to take the necessary stepping stones to prepare for that, do a lot of reading definitely because of course I have to represent Belize in whatever I do. Over there we went to the Harvard Business School, we did a couple classes and one of the professors told me that whatever you do, regardless of you business is successful, if you can’t handle it emotionally or if you have some financial problems, emotional problems, whatever it may be. You have to—regardless if say dah your baby den, that’s the thing that you love to do the most, you have to weigh the pros and cons and give up one or the other. So I chose college first because of course when I come back I can continue the business.”
The Youth Business Trust follows the Youth Business International model started by Prince Charles of Wales and it is operational in thirty seven countries. The country office is located on the second floor of the Doony’s building at the corner of Albert and Prince Streets in Belize City.
