What is entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is simply having the ability to decide what you work on for yourself, instead of being told what you work on for others.” I naively said this three weeks ago, before being admitted to the Leadership Lab program and having the opportunity to attend the Moroccan American Leadership Forum, which was implemented by the US Embassy in partnership with the AFCD foundation in Marrakech from December 8th to December 11th.

Over these four days of training, I learned the most valuable lessons that changed my entire perspective on leadership, networking, and overall entrepreneurship.

The leadership lab program Day 1 and 2

Days 1 and 2 of the program were divided into 3 sessions during which we had the opportunity to form teams and get introduced to the US embassy representatives, elected officials, and community leaders. This event allowed me to sense the real leadership spirit in each one of the AFCD team members, starting from the founder Mr. Akaya Kamal to every other team member. It changed my definition of leadership from being based mainly on getting people to work for you and help you achieve your goals to dedicating time, knowledge, and taking actions to inspire, empower, and serve others in order to grow together and make a great impact in this community.

The leadership lab program day 3&4

On the third day, we had workshops during which we worked on ideating, finalizing the business idea, and defining each of our strengths. This allowed me to understand that networking goes beyond attending events to meet people from whom you can benefit. It’s a skill that requires one to invest time in building lasting two-way relationships where all parties give and receive. One should not always look for the commonalities between them and others in order to connect, but rather appreciate the differences that make each one of us special and put them together to create meaningful and strong bonds.

As for the last day, we had the chance to attend the greatest conference, run by the brilliant Ben Mier Youssef. During this conference, he had us questioning the meaning of entrepreneurship and digging in for a deeper and greater sense of it. I confidently say that “Entrepreneurship is solving a problem you understand for people you understand… It’s having the impact you want on the world, the way you want to have it.”

With that said, I believe that the Moroccan American Leadership Forum was an enlightening start to a long learning journey in which we will be working alongside great leaders and mentors to finally create the change we want, the way we want.

Kaoutar Boulahna.