The first edition of the Start Young Global Young Entrepreneur Awards took place on Thursday the 1st of May 2014 and many young British entrepreneurs were recognized for the business achievements. The Best Social Enterprise Of The Year award was given to the Young Black Graduates, a not-for-profit organization that provides a platform for young ambitious people to network, share ideas, experiences, and opportunities. See some of the photos from the event here.
Here are some of the photos from the Start Young Global Young Entrepreneur Awards 2014 that took place in London on Thursday night, May 1st, 2014. Check out the winners of the Best Social Enterprise and Business Mentor Of The Year. This year’s award was the maiden edition of the event and it was well attended by young entrepreneurs, the media, as well as ambitious and inspiring young business owners.
The purpose of the event and award is to celebrate young business owners in the UK and also provide them with a platform to network, develop and grow their businesses. The event organised by Start Young Global and sponsored by Team B and took place at The Regent in London.
The following categories of Awards were given at the event
The Start Young Global Young Entrepreneur Awards 2014 took place on Friday night the 1st of May. For the business mentor of the year category, Urban Financier emerged as the winner. You will find more information about them and their organisation in our upcoming articles.
George the poet
Start Young Global was launched last year, and since then, they have met and proudly helped hundreds of ambitious young entrepreneurs on their journey in the world of business. Their goal of empowering Britain’s Young Entrepreneurs is consistently reinforced through various mediums, including seminars, events and training programmes, their online business resource hub – and now this award.
AfroCosmopolitan had the opportunity to talk to Ernest Kouassi, and the young entrepreneur spoke about his past mistakes and how his life has turned out for the better.
Speaking about how he changed from nothing to something, the young inspirational speaker told Sanchez Nelson, “No one listened to me before – but now people see me, they hear me, they look up to me and this just makes me want to work even harder.” Ernest and his company have been nominated for 2 awards at the Start Young Global Young Entrepreneur Awards taking place in London tomorrow the 1st of May 2014.
See the full interview below.
Founder of the multi-award winning company EKA, Ernest Kouassi has been described as ‘ one of the most exciting young entrepreneurs in the Uk. Whilst the description is true, I would like to refer to Kouassi as a breath of fresh air, the air that the young generation of today needs in order to succeed and to become successful in a society that tends to knock you down from time to time. Kouassi was just seventeen years old when he started EKA since it has become the shelter of five different businesses all of which are successful not to mention rapidly expanding. As a global nominee ( BEFFTA Awards), course instructor, inspirational speaker just to name a few, Kouassi is a soon to be author.
How soon you ask? Let’s just say this month just got a bit more exciting. Whilst Kouassi has not always wanted to be an author he knew that his book would enable him to reach out and connect to others even if they had never or will never get the inspiring experience of his inspirational speeches. He explained that his book can be used as a guideline or more so motivation for other entrepreneurs especially the younger generation.
So what is the day to day lifestyle of a success young entrepreneur?
Kouassi was kind enough to spare some time to chat and give us the inside scoop!
It is Monday and it is an early start for Kouassi and I’m talking 5:00 am early, as he goes for his morning jog leaving roughly around 5:30 am. Then it is off to the office for 6:30 am which he stated is now located in Stratford, meeting with the publishers at 9:30 am and then finally its back to the office until around 10:00 pm. What a day.
I asked Kouassi, as you are still quite young. How do you balance your social life, do you not feel as if your business is taking up a vast amount of your life?
“I don’t really have a social life. I tend to meet and make new friends via work, I think its better that way, networking and anyway, time flies when you’re having fun. I love what I do”. Kouassi love and passion for his career stems from a place I’m sure a few would be able to relate. It has not always been easy for Kouassi as a young black youth. In his early teenage years, he had many run-ins with the law, this among many other things eventually took a negative effect on not only his education but his life.
One can imagine that as a teenager it can be difficult to step away and to not take part in any of the wrong doings that your peers are involved in. However, Kouassi had had enough and decided to change his life. I previously mentioned that Kouassi is also an inspirational speaker, as he is from the Borough of Lambeth I asked if he had ever done any motivational speeches in other parts of South London such as Croydon, Brixton, Lewisham etc. I was extremely surprised when he informed me that he is band from Croydon and Lewisham due to his run-ins with the law in his younger years. He continued to explain that even though he has and still is trying to illustrate that he is no longer the same individual that he once was, the answer still remains NO!
With three younger siblings, Kouassi has proven as an older brother that hard work, motivation and dedication will and shall pay off. Kouassi’s younger brother is seventeen.
I asked Kouassi if his brother had experienced the same lifestyle as he did when he was his age or is he following in his footsteps? ” Yes he is, I encouraged him and now he is venturing into the business world”.
Kouassi is nineteen and will be twenty in June. I was intrigued to know where he would like to be by the age of twenty-five. ” I would like to be a self-made million air by the age of twenty-five, and own a global company. The first country I would like to branch out to would be Dubai because it’s tax-free ” he joked. Well, he is definitely on the right path. Kouassi website has been launched in many other countries around the world. Such as China, Ghana, Brazil, USA, India, Germany and that’s just to name a few.
Sadly our conversation was coming to end, but before it did I needed to ask ” Are you happy Ernest?
” Many of us in society can be guilty of thinking that just because someone is becoming a success, or may be financial better off than most, we automatically assume that they must be happy and if not we question what could they possibly be unhappy about when they appear to have everything?
Sometimes when you having everything it can feel like you have nothing. Kouassi is only nineteen and has remarkable changed his life around rapidly. Whilst we may congratulate and encourage his success. You have to wonder what kind of stress does he go through, does he feel like many depend on him to provide now, is it a daily struggle for him to stay on the right path and to avoid temptation or not slip back into that disturbing lifestyle, the questions may be endless.
However, Kouassi replied “I’m surprised how my life has changed over a matter of years and so quickly as well. But yes I am very happy. I never had any money before and now I can pay my mums bills, go shopping for her and just really help her out. I was able to move out of the hood and away from all the crime in my life. No one listened to me before but now people see me, they hear me, they look up to me and this just makes me want to work even harder”.
It is amazing to see or even to just hear about those to turn their life around and whilst doing so they are helping and encouraging others. Ernest Kouassi changed the life he was living, he has changed his life forever.
On Sunday the 27th of April 2014, Barcelona defender Dani Alves made international headlines when he picked up and ate a racist banana that was thrown at him during his team’s match against Villareal.
At the 76th minute of the match, Dani Alves was about to take a corner when someone threw a banana at him. Instead of getting angry, Alves simply picked up the bana, took a bite and continued with the game.
Speaking about the incident Alves said, “I don’t know who it was, but thanks to whoever threw the banana, the potassium gave me the energy for the two crosses which led to a goal.”
Since his reaction, stars have voiced support for the Barca playing, snapping photos of themselves or in a group and posting to social networks with with the hashtag, “We are all monkeys“.
See the video below.
See photos of the “We are all monkeys” meme below.
African-American Tunde Ahmad has had to face many obstacles to get where he is, but none stopped him from getting into the best schools in the country and accepting a spot at Yale!
Ellen DeGeneres heard about his story and wanted to do something for him that he’ll never forget. Tunde was invited to the Ellen DeGeneres where he was giving the sum of $15,000 to use for his tuition fees and other miscellaneous expenses.
The 18-year-old young man made headlines last week for scoring a 2100 SAT score, out of 2400, and a 5.0 GPA from Oak Tech High School. He was accepted into all the numerous ivy-league schools that he applied to, including Yale, Brown and Columbia. He announced on Ellen’s show that he will be studying at Yale next year. See the video of Tunde at Ellen DeGeneres show below.
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Elodie Ouedraogo black athlete that plays for Belgium.
Elodie was born in Burkina Faso, but feels blank. “I’m a bounty. Millimeters only my skin is brown, inside I’m all white.”
On what kind of men the athlete falls? “Humor is the most important thing in a relationship. If a man fails in all other respects, you at least have a good laugh.”
Monday vying Tom Waes, Lieven Scheire and Jelle de Beule against each other, “Can I kiss you?” Inset is a kiss from Elodie.
She has already made an appearance as herself on the hit comedy Parks and Recreation, in the fictional setting of Pawnee.
But now, Michelle Obama, 50, is heading to Nashville, as it has been confirmed that the First Lady will be making a guest appearance on the ABC drama, starring Connie Britton.
Michelle Obama will be making a guest appearance on Nashville next month
In the upcoming episode, Connie’s character Rayna James ropes in Michelle to host a charity concert at Fort Campbell, after it is reveals that character Luke Wheeler has been injured in Afghanistan.
The episode will air May 7th and leads up to the finale of season two, which airs on May 14th.
Nashville airs on Wednesdays at 10pm EST on channel ABC.
Michelle is seen here filming a guest spot on Parks and Recreation in front of the show’s star Amy Poehler in February this year
Michelle has certainly been busy this year, kicking off 2014 with her star-studded 50th birthday bash.
Performing at the event was non other than Beyonce, who jetted to Washington D.C. to sing a few of her biggest hits at the White House on 18th January.
In October last year, Michelle spoofed around with the cast of Sesame Street to promote her Let’s Move! initiative
Other VIP guests included model Chrissy Teigen, R&B star Mary J. Blige, fashion designer Michael Kors, celebrity chef Rachael Ray, singer Gladys Knight, entrepreneur Sheryl Sandberg and Oprah Winfrey’s best pal Gayle King.
The Avengers’ star Samuel L. Jackson told reporters on his way into the party: ‘I am looking forward to saying happy birthday to her, being able to celebrate this great milestone in her life.’
Michelle Obama is pictured here with Samantha Cameron outside the White House in Washington DC back in March of 2012
I Can’t Describe hitmaker Jennifer previously revealed she didn’t get Michelle a birthday present.
Asked how easy it was to pick out something special for Michelle, the 32-year-old star said: ‘You don’t. You just go and be there and show your support, that’s all you can do.’
The star will welcome Michelle Obama as a guest
Michelle has also made an appearance on the Rachael Ray Food Network show just last month
