No Country for Young Women is currently covering the 2014 Women’s Forum in Deauville, France. For live tweets, see: @NCYW.
Below you’ll find interview excerpts with three finalists from this year’s Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards and Stanislas de Quercize, President & CEO of Cartier International.
Stanislas de Quercize
Cartier International
cartier.com
Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely journey. You need a mentor. That’s what the Cartier Awards offer, a community with alumni. Finalists can exchange ideas. If they have an issue, they can have an answer from people who have been in the same journey. This is the power of community. […] As the French poet Louis Aragon once said: “La femme est le futur de l’homme” (woman is the future of man).
Achenyo Idachaba
MITIMETH, Nigeria
Homewear and accessories woven from aquatic weeds
mitimeth.com.ng
“I moved from a corporate career and here I am making baskets. So my parents are thinking, I paid all this money to send you to Cornell and you’re making baskets? But it’s about changing livelihoods. It’s about cleaning up the environment. So people began to see beyond making baskets.”
Bel Pesce
FAZINOVA, Brazil
Courses to teach entrepreneurial values
escola.fazinova.com.br
Some important lessons: don’t mind your age. You can do fantastic things at all ages.
Don’t believe in overnight success. If you go deeper, you see that people worked really hard. You should be able to say no… but don’t take no for an answer.
Eleni Antoniadou
TRANSPLANTS WITHOUT DONORS, United States
Artificial organs for transplants
tissueeng.com
You have to embrace the challenge. No matter if you have success or failures, you have to keep doing it. Not everyone will share your vision. You have to keep building bridges, not walls.
Links:
- The Women’s Forum Official Website
- The Women’s Forum on Twitter
