{The following essay was one of top three finalist essays selected from over 30 essay submissions as part of "The Power of Entrepreneurship" Essay Contest. This essay contest, hosted by the Babson-Rwanda Entrepreneurship Center (BREC), was an event held during Global Entrepreneurship Week/Rwanda 2012}.

Nowadays, in most of the countries of the world especially those of Africa, the word “ENTREPRENEURSHIP “seems like a magic word .why?

The answer is right there beside you, it is simply because once someone generates great business ideas and put them into action there will always be someone else copying, trying hard to improve what you did and create new things out of it for a better efficiency.

Throughout the years entrepreneurship was variously defined by the greatest people of the world.

In my essay I want to emphasize on the fact that, you cannot hide entrepreneurship`s outcomes like candies and sweets. No, entrepreneurship’s shines out for everyone, it gets brighter and brighter everyday.
In Africa, especially, in Rwanda entrepreneurship has become a powerful weapon to fight against poverty and unemployment.It has become a proof that entrepreneurship only can positively transform billions of lives in short period and these changes remain forever.This is power of practicing entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is the most amazing course for young people especially those interested in business. Entrepreneurship put into practice brings out precisely the best out of life.

It transforms not only the people’s financial situations but also the ways of thinking and the ways of doing things. My personal experience is that everyone interested in entrepreneurship gets from a sleepy-head to a hard-worker mind; from always late to right on time.

This led to positive improvement of social values especially in our beautiful Rwanda that gives great importance to its social values. To be exact, development of a country starts with the development of mindset of the population.

So, entrepreneurship by nature starts with exactly these improvements. Then this opens you to see opportunities you had never considered before and exploit them, this is how the material things are obtained (from ideas into action!! from imagination to reality!).

Why Do Entrepreneurship Can Transform Human Kind

When I walk through the streets of Kigali ,I can’t take three miles without hearing the word “facebook” and whenever I give my address I always remember my facebook user name .Technology has a great impact on our daily lives lately.

When Mark Zuckerburg created facebook ,he was in his early 20’s .He aimed at starting a social network that would allow him to keep in touch with his friends and classmates ,he ended up creating a worldwide social network used currently by thousands of millions of ordinary people and millions of business people.

There is more than 800 millions of facebook users in the world.facebook pages allows your business to categorize itself property,auto accept friends and fans and create an interactive space where people can engage with your business.

Now Mark is a millionaire and he is being very helpful to the entire world in general .(source : www.google.com)This is a perfect example of how great ideas once put to action (entrepreneurship) have the power to transform lives.

Entrepreneurship is not the sort of thing one would want to keep all to him/herself but something you want to share with everyone, something you want everyone to see and be aware of.
As I said earlier, entrepreneurship‘s outcomes are too fantastic to be hidden, they shine out for everyone .It’s greatest power lies in the fact that it has the ability to touch the mindsets and hearts of many.

Another good example would be our well known entrepreneur SINA GERARD whose great achievements have been a good inspiration to all who know him and a remarkable sign of how much doing business in Rwanda is possible.

He shows that through entrepreneurship a little period of time combined with creativity and innovation can bring about great changes and success.

Looking at his past,when he was younger,he had a vision ( a goal) but his great challenge was that he hadn’t completed his studies and he had to work twice as everyone else for his survival as a businessman.

But this did not slow him down, he focuses on his goal and works hard for it these some of the characters of a good entrepreneur.

We can honestly say that entrepreneurship led to the success that he is now enjoying .It built his self-esteem, self-confidence and helped him keep an open mind ,that enabled him to see opportunities all around him.

His enterprise “URWIBUTSO NYIRANGARAMA” produces various high quality products like: juices: AGASHYA; pepper: AKABANGA; bottled water: AKANDI; breads and cakes; he grows fruits and biscuits: AKARABO which is very delicious by the way.

He employs more than a hundred people in his enterprise ,he pays taxes contributing to the country’s development.Sina Gerard also sponsored many national events like the “ Agaciro Development Fund “that is very important to help Rwanda achieve selfreliance.Today,this fund as well as the “one dollar compaign ” are the biggest funds of Rwanda.

He has transformed lives of millions of lives with his entrepreneurial activities. He was awarded several times on the international level bringing pride to Rwanda.

He is also my personal role model because he showed me that you can start with little to achieve great things. “DETERMINATION IS EVERYTHING.”

How Entrepreneurship Transforms Humankind

In Europe and America, entrepreneurship’s positive outcomes can be seen everywhere, it has reached a great lever but there is still a need to continue on that path.

The developed countries should promote “green entrepreneurship “this means running business friendly to our environment . In African countries and other developing countries, entrepreneurship needs to be developed the following are what can be done:

Exploitation of natural talents: adults and especially young people should come together and try evolving their talents to turn them it practical business opportunities.
Ex: the great Rwandan painter BINAMUNGU EPAPHRODITE USED his painting to convey messages of peace, love and traditional culture to the world and hence he transformed the mind sets of many people.

Encouragement of homemade products that are unique and involve the development of creativity and innovation to make remarked designs to show the best from life ‘surroundings. Ex: jewelry, clothing design …

The 1st thing that has already been implemented is educate people with entrepreneurship skills and the 2nd would be to create them means to come together (cooperatives) and make available financial and in kind facilities. Ex : one stop youth center of entrepreneurship in Kimisagara

Lastly ,encouraging “green entrepreneurship” because the environment we live in is the one that future generations will live in.

This is why we must use the power and potential of entrepreneurship to protect our environment to make our present life good and our future life better. Ex: recycling businesses and biobusiness…

As conclusion ,entrepreneurship is not only what it stands for but it is also what it does contribute to the positive transformation of our lives.

As the young generation who will become successful entrepreneurs ,we have to work harder and harder each new day and develop in ourselves creativity and innovation.

As Rwandans, we believe that development of a country has to start with the development of our mindset and also that entrepreneurship is a powerful weapon to fight against poverty and unemployment.

To make entrepreneurship‘s outcomes shine brighter and brighter every day we must play a big role through sharing with others constructive ideas and put our great business ideas into action.