The life boat || Ashi’s journey #3
I was the first foreign student to run for a governor position.
A couple of months ago, I found myself talking to a member of Singa, and at one point in our conversation, my eyes nearly popped out of my head. He started talking to me, without knowing it, about something I had been dreaming about for a very long time …
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In my second year as a student at West Virginia University in the United States, I was elected governor of the Student Government Association by almost 3000 votes out of 4000. The Student Government Association is the organisation that structures and voices the student’s opinions to the university’s governing board. It’s like a small Congress, or National Assembly, it’s central to the good functioning of the university.
Most of my friends called me crazy
I was the first foreign student to run for a governor position. My English level was so bad that the only thing the journalists covering the election said about me after I competed in the public debates was that I was well dressed… Most of my friends called me crazy, told me I would never manage to get elected and why was I intent on running for a position that was clearly meant for American students ? But international students around me were always complaining that we needed to be represented in the Student Government Association, and I knew that we needed this representation to benefit from grants, to be able to express ourselves in case a decision concerning us was put up for a vote. I wanted to try it, I felt it in my guts, and I remembered my father’s words to give me strength : “If there is a will, there is a way. You have to campaign like a racing horse, your mind fixed on the finishing line.” And he was right. I won the election, against all odds.
I created an ecommerce website that listed products which had a social impact.
So when this member of Singa started to tell me about the organisation’s incubator programme, whose objective is to accompany young entrepreneurs in the development of their project, I decided to run for it. He did not know, Benasser, that’s his name, that I had been dreaming of creating my own company for the longest time. In Jordan, I created an ecommerce website that listed products which had a social impact. I wanted to sell products produced by people in refugee camps. Right after university, I co-founded a company using big data and GPS technologies to track wild and endangered species. I left the startup because I was impatient, and had received a good work offer. When I arrived in France, I tried to expand my ecommerce website. I started to attend entrepreneurship courses, trying to understand the French system, the specific market segmentation, the customer needs, the financial and legal aspects of creating a startup … But I was failing. The shipping costs from Jordan to France were too high, and I had trouble transferring the company’s concept from Jordan to France. Benasser told me that the selection process for this incubation programme was starting … the next day. I completed an application in a hurry, met with the programme’s leader, and was lucky enough to grab the last place in this pre-incubation programme.
Now, the pitch to get in the incubation programme is next week. My head is beginning to crowd with questions … do I really want to be an entrepreneur ? Should I rather try and find a secure, salaried position, stop taking risks in this new country ? Should I continue and pitch my idea, or take a step back ?
Signé : Ashi
Illustration : Alix Mains
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