The Autonomous Province of Trento organised on 8 July 2021 an online meeting in collaboration with Confindustria (General Confederation of Italian Industry). Three young Trentino entrepreuneurs were invited to present their experiences and challenges. The aim of the webinar was to promote an entrepreneurial spirit among young participants, mostly youth workers and students. A focus was set on two rural areas identified for the project, namely Valle del Chiese and Primiero.
Serena Beber, Ecotop manager, Luca Cattoi, founder of Graffiti 2000 and Valentina Togn, owner of the Wine cellar Valdadige presented their exeperiences in three differents sectors. Ecotop deals with environmental challenges and waste management; Graffiti 2000 is a web marketing and communication agency, while Valdadige produces wines.
The discussions revolved around the following question: ‘What are the core elements of a good entrepreneur? It was interesting to see that all three Trentino entrepreneurs converged to a common point of view and stressed the following features: idea/creativity, ambitiousness, perseverance and optimism. However, according to them, the most challenging element to acquire was the skills.
Luca Cattoi declared: ‘If you want a successful business, you need great expertise. When you are young, it is possible that you make some mistakes. However, over the years, you should make fewer mistakes. We are talking about agile working, doing things one step at a time, doing a small piece, validating it and seeing if it works, the BIG goal is done with many small goals’. Another relevant aspect that was underlined is that you have to test your business every day to verify strengths and weaknesses and find adequate solutions to face the problems.
All three Trentino entrepreneurs agreed on the fact that schools should teach ‘how to learn’, practical work and not only from books. The learning does not end with school certificates but it continues throughout the whole life. Young people have to steadily learn and upskill by undertaking experiences in different sectors and also abroad.
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