Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu Quotes

My driving passions as an entrepreneur are always about sharing Ethiopian cultures with the world and finding exciting ways to keep these cultures vibrant and fully relevant.

Having grown up watching our family and neighbors struggling, we decided to create the "better life" we were all waiting for by harnessing our community's incredible artisan skills and channeling them into a sustainable, global, fair trade footwear business. We have done that and more and we are proud to say that the soleRebels brand is being enjoyed by people in over 30 countries around the world.

I think conventional wisdom is, by definition, the antithesis of entrepreneurialism, so I am probably on the other side of a lot of it.

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.

For people to be innovative... they don't have to really travel a long way or copy somebody's business idea. It's right there.

are sharing Ethiopian cultures with the world and finding exciting ways to keep these cultures vibrant and fully relevant.

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.

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

“I began Garden of Coffee so that people everywhere can experience the magic of hand-roasted Ethiopian coffees, roasted at their source by Ethiopia’s finest coffee artisans.

We Decided to Create the Better Life We were all waiting for

Love what you do, because without a genuine love and passion, you won't be successful.

I knew that there were so many talented people out there who could do great things if only given a chance. However, due to extreme poverty, stigma, and marginalization,… many of them could not even get simple jobs. This was devastating for me, as I had grown up with them. They were my neighbours, my family members.

For me, I never thought because I'm a woman I'm not going to do something, I'm not going to try it this or that. The way I see myself is… I'm a person. I am capable of doing whatever I want and I'm going to succeed because I'm going to be working really hard to be there each and every day. So, for African girls and women to say 'I'm not going to be able to do this, I'm not capable of doing this,' you're killing yourself. If we are brave enough to go out to sell ideas to people, I think we can succeed.

To me, very successful entrepreneurs have the ability not simply to come up with an idea,

that helped give her confidence in her contributions to society as a woman, and ultimately, what she is doing today.