If the past few days of site visits and lectures gave us the theory behind Morocco’s startup ecosystem, today was all about putting it into practice. Day 9 brought new perspectives. We moved from observing to doing, culminating in an intense, cross-cultural entrepreneurship exercise. But before we even put pen to paper, we needed a…
Tag: Plus3 Morocco
Postcards from Morocco: Leather, Souks, and Crafts
Day 8 of Morocco was exciting! Today was our last day in Marrakech, and after a quick morning, we made our way to a women’s cooperative. This was, hands down, one of the best experiences of my life. Immediately upon entering, I noticed how calm, controlled, and relaxing the environment felt. It was a drastic…
Day 9! Farah Wisdom
Today we started our morning at the CCCL, and had the privilege of learning about Farah’s story and how she became the founder and visionary behind the CCCL. From creating the organization from scratch, what stood out most to me was the risk she took in choosing such a unique idea. She pushed herself to…
Day 9: Broke Uni Students are Universal
Today we heard from Farah and her talk genuinely stuck with me in a way I was not fully expecting. What I appreciated most about it was how honest she was about her path, because it was not the straight line that success stories usually get packaged as. She had the grades to go into…
Day 9: One idea at a time
Today we learned a lot about Farah and her entrepreneurial experiences. I found it very interesting and inspiring how she did not even really remember the failures she faced when starting the CCCL because she just used hardships and solved them to help make the CCCL better. Her talk also inspired me because she mentioned…
Day 9: Crossing Cultures & Chowing Crepes
Cross-cultural learning was the focus of today’s main lecture, led by Farah, the founder of and brains behind the CCCL. She discussed her story that led to her creating the organization, a story that was full of twists and turns. My biggest takeaway from her talk was that the numerous pivots in her life actually…
Mystery Street Drink
When Farah walked through her entrepreneurial journey, a key and consistent point she made was to just start. She emphasized that whether or not you have the funding, the best thing to do is begin with the idea, because time is the most valuable thing. When I think about entrepreneurship, I usually think of fully…
Be an Entrepreneur or Go to Miami and Buy a Business?
Listening to Farah’s experience as an entrepreneur was very interesting because her story was something I never would have expected. Starting off in a French school here in Morocco and constantly being pushed towards the goal of moving out of Morocco to study and work in France, seems like something that would have been very…
Catsbah
Farah’s discussion strongly impacted our entrepreneurship exercise, and I learned a lot from what she said. The most important thing that I took away from Farah was to keep ideas in your back pocket. It may not be the right time to launch an entrepreneurship idea, but that does not mean there will not be…
The map was probably made before 2011 probably
Farah’s talk had a major impact on our group entrepreneurship exercise because it changed the way I thought about failure. When I asked her about the biggest failure she had experienced, she said she did not know. She explained that it was not because she had never failed, quite the opposite. Instead, she said she…
F Students are the Inventors
Today, the main topic was consistent on entrepreneurship. The founder of the Center of Cross Cultural Learning, Farah Cherif D’ouezzan, spoke to us this morning about the steps in her life that led to her eventually founding and leading the CCCL. Following her presentation, a group of local Moroccan students arrived at the center, where…
www.soukshopper.com
Farah’s talk challenged the way I naturally approach things, especially as someone who prefers structure and having everything planned out in advance. I like knowing exactly what I’m doing and where something is going, but entrepreneurship doesn’t really allow for that level of control. What stood out to me most was her emphasis on adaptability….
A Cross-Cultural Business Challenge
The first sign of being an entrepreneur is wanting to fix something. This is the idea that stood out to me most from our session today with Farah, founder of the Center for Cross Cultural Learning, and one that impacted how my group navigated the entrepreneurship exercise. Today, our group in collaboration with Moroccan university…
Rabat U Offered
Farah’s entrepreneurship talk taught me a couple important lessons that I will carry with me throughout my business journey. Farah’s entrepreneurial journey is very impressive, so I truly value all of her words of advice. Her first message is to start NOW. I think this is awesome advice because we spend too much time thinking…
Africa (Toto)
Coming to you back from Rabat today! It’s weird being back. I still feel uncertain and uncomfortable, but less so than before. My walk from my host family to CCCL is becoming more familiar (though I still have Apple Maps open every time!) and I have been able to talk more with my host sister…
Day 8 with the women’s cooperative!
Today we had an early rise to check out of our hotel after a great day of exploring and taking advantage of all that Marrakesh had to offer. Before we left, we headed to the women’s cooperative to learn more about its history and the impact it has on the community. The cooperative made this…
Day 8: I Know What’s Ethical and I Still Love a Good Deal
Today we visited a women’s leather cooperative and I will say, walking in I did not fully understand what I was about to experience. We actually got to make a leather hand pouch from scratch with the help of the women there, and I am not going to sugarcoat it, it was tiring. My hands…
Work life is creeping up on me…
Before departing from Marrakesh, we took a stop at the women’s cooperative to learn about their operating system as well as engage in a leather workshop where we were able to make something of our choice. Out of the options provided, I chose to create the sunglasses pouch pictured on this blog. Something that stood…
Leathermen For a Day
The Anou Cooperative and the women’s cooperative ultimately have the same goal – to help women gain more independence and control of their work. Both give women a way to transfer their skills into potential financial freedom through selling them, and actually being a part of the business rather than standing on the sidelines. They…
Day 8: Crafts with the Coop
Today we visited the women’s cooperative, where I had the opportunity to hand make a leather sunglasses holder. The process was a lot of fun, although there were definitely moments when I thought I had messed it all up, especially when cutting the leather wrong and running out of thread. Thankfully, with plenty of help…