USA | U.K. Youth Entrepreneurship Program | 4 Oct 2012

Heart broken I would say..... Sad I would say...... However 100% fulfilled!! Yes, it was the end of the most incredible 17 days (to be exact) of my life! There was never a moment during the whole of my experience that I was not feeling completely overwhelmed or over excited (sometimes not always a good thing, ask my host mum Deb!). Host families never failed to take the hosting part out of the equation and simply leave us with the word family. Cooking, cleaning, laughing and just being with each other every day was all we ever needed. The TV was hardly switched on (regardless of the fact that the Olympics were going on in LONDON). Smiling became my new hobby that I did nearly every minute of the day (maybe even while I was sleeping). There must have been very clever people behind the scenes of the amazing movie I felt like I was starring in!! Ohh yes I am indeed a movie star-(just doing this as a gateway to my entrepreneur future). Business eh? Who would have thought that me – Miss H.O. (the most confused and indecisive person in the world- actually applying to be in the Guinness world records) came back from AMERICA (yep.. I went to the states did I not say?) so sure that her future lied in the hands of marketing and then owning a multimillionaire business (and now you know why I was smiling in my sleep). We met the most inspiring people... Skinny Pancake owner who put his blood, sweat and tears into the business (not in the pancakes..pheww.. I had you scared there for a minute)! Clinging onto a business even when it was failing because he knew that it could be a success. Talent Skate park- run by a woman who spends every day doing what she loves, facing all the problems because all kids that she works with make it worthwhile. Alec’s Spicy Pretzels which started from a teenager doing his high school project but due to dedication and hard work it became a very successful business in selling home-made pretzels that came from a family recipe. New Farms for New Americans (NFNA) which gave immigrants and refugees a chance to start up their own businesses by giving them a portion of land that they can start growing crops on (amazing I know!!!) Need I go on my friends..... London really doesn’t have the spirit that Vermont has for socially responsible businesses that will give you special food - that is produced with care. Yes Londoners there is such thing!!! I know starting my own business is not going to be easy but if I even have a tenth of the spirit that all the entrepreneurs that I met had then who am I not to be brave. Just telling my story.... P.S. Oh and I made a mistake above, I meant multi billionaire business (silly me)