Check out the BDC article titled BDC Announces Winners of the 2011 E-Spirit National Aboriginal Youth Business Plan Competition!

Congrats to not only the winners but to everyone who participated!

I participated in this competition for three years in a row. In 2003, where I won the silver award in Halifax NS. In 2004, where I attended with friends as a team in Prince George BC. In 2005, where me and my sister Alicia won best video award in Edmonton AB.

I know how hard each and every participant worked and how dedicated each of the teams, whether as an one person team or group of people in a team, must have been to the competition.

When I attended, I was not enrolled in any business course at my high school. I did this as an extra-curricular. I also did not know anything about accounting or writing a business plan, etc. By the time the competition had rolled around, I finished the plan literally just in time. To qualify to attend the competition, I had to write a business plan, make a powerpoint presentation, make a video/commercial and also a tradeshow display.

Believe me when I say this:

If you really want to do something, go for it and don’t let anyone say you can’t do it or scare you by telling “it’s a lot of hard work.”

In the end, I ended up attending the competition as a one-person team, with no experience (ie – I wasn’t taking or studying business at the time), and I won the Silver award!

Really, you can do anything you set your heart on 😉

For more information about the competition check out the E-Spirit page!