Tutor Teacher, Latvia
As a university educator for almost 15 years I truly believe that young people have great inner potential for entrepreneurship and innovations. It is our task to unlock this potential and create an environment where young talents can flourish.
Often the fear to make a mistake and fail is a greatest barrier to all great entrepreneurial ideas and innovations. Therefore, the story of IBL is a story about the fear…or overcoming the deepest fear! The fear of an action that will result in failure, disappointment, frustration and judgment.
Entrepreneurship and innovation is about overcoming that deepest fear! One will overcome it only through an action, by getting out of own comfort zone – traditional class room. Come and act! Business success is a result of lessons learnt from past failures. InnoBarentsLab (IBL) is a safe place to fail! This is what I hope will add to the traditional learning of our student. Not necessarily, all of IBL participants will become entrepreneurs, but certainly all of them will become entrepreneurial in some way, the skill that will be needed in their life in any kind of endeavor. This unique opportunity of giving students a possibility to experience innovation and entrepreneurship outside traditional class-room setting has been my personal dream as an educator.
In my young age of 25 I established my own company, learned entrepreneurship by own bumps and only later I realised that it was the best learning one can have. To create such an environment that would give the students a possibility to gain real-life experience and at the same time to combine it with the studies was possible within ENPI Kolarctic project “Young Innovative Entrepreneurs” by creating the unit called InnoBarentsLab. Many students gladly joined the journey full of risks and unexpected turns…the journey of overcoming the fear goes on! We welcome everyone in our lab, everyone who needs that starting boost for any kind of initiative one has in mind!
“We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others” (from movie “Coach Carter)
