Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu Quotes

I wanted to show that it is possible to be a local person, in Ethiopia and in Africa, and to be globally successful.

My advice would be to build your idea piece by piece and get real and honest traction in the market with that idea while retaining as much equity as you can.

If you have a crazy idea, go for it! Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Don't just make things, make things better. "Innovation is...improving the state of what was before."

I have developed a fine sense of my weaknesses, and I address those by building my team with people who have that strength I may lack. So I flip any weakness I may have and make it a strength … Weakness recognition, and a full embrace of that, is a powerful tool.

This gave me a good knowledge of the industry, which was extremely useful in terms of setting up the company and making it grow,

We are doing well. We are trying to do $2m this year. In 2016, we are planning to do $20m. So that's why we are working hard and we are trying to expand our working facility. The demand is here. It's up to us to take that advantage and to make it happen,

but to exquisitely execute that idea over and over and make it into a living, breathing reality. The best entrepreneurs literally seem to live their companies.

If we want to have truly equitable societies, then we need to embrace equity on all levels. And that means women’s economic empowerment and the key to that is women entrepreneurs.

I always reflect and think about the same thing: business is about solving problems. Trying to identify the singular most difficult situation would be doing a disservice to this simple fact: if you are not continuously encountering tough situations as an entrepreneur, and solving them, then you are not really in business. Encountering obstacles and overcoming them is my day-to-day existence.

I completed all my education here in Ethiopia, and I have NEVER lived anywhere else but Ethiopia.

I think the best companies and brands are built by entrepreneurs willing to self-fund their ideas,

I like to visualise my goals in my own private space. I try and make it as real as possible so it is almost tangible to me. That gives these goals an immediacy and realness both for me and for my team that allows people to really chase that idea or goal in a visceral way.

Since we are a fair trade organisation people want to buy fair trade shoes from us but they want to buy at cheap prices. That I don't understand. I know that running a business is not that easy and there is always a threat, there is always a risk that we are going to take, but I love it.

Prosperity creation is the sole route to the elimination of poverty. And to create sustained prosperity, you have to create something truly world class.