You’re never too old to go to camp…

Is it just Me, or do you, too remember the days when everyone was getting ready to go to camp…

Except for weekend trips with the Girl Scouts, I never went to camp; I never wanted too.  In fact, I really didn’t love the weekend trips away from home much either; I knew I’d be missing something happening on the home front and have to settle for the stories when I returned.

I remember my best friends getting ready to go to summer camp: the trunks came down from the attic, got packed, and the big “mean truck” would come to pick them up.  I was sorry to know they would be gone for most of the summer but never really thought I was missing anything.  We all cried the day they departed.

Well, guess what?

I just got back from camp:  VENTURE CAMP, and WOW, did I love it…here’s why…

I was in a beautiful, private estate with a professional chef (best sliders ever, Chefski!), amazing men and women from points far and wide, and, despite the fact that everyone was there for “serious camping”, I had fun.

I came to know about VENTURE CAMP when The International Women’s Leadership Association (TheIWLA) member, Giadha DeCarcer, introduced me to the concept and the plan that is now an amazing incubator for aspiring and expanding Entrepreneurs.

Giadha is the CEO of this amazing transformational opportunity that places a dozen, or so, Entrepreneurs in this amazing setting so each can pitch his/her idea for a new business.  Quickly, competition turns into cooperation and teams are formed to advance the potential launch of the ideas THEY feel are most viable.

Former competitors now become team members and, hopefully, business partners as the 8-week VC experience advances.  I love camp, now!

Camera crews move about and among the Entrepreneurs capturing the diverse perspectives, personalities, and potential that is buzzing around the mansion all to create opportunity, launch businesses and develop a Docudrama Series for television.  I really, really love camp!

I arrived at VC about ten days after the Entrepreneurs did; one Entrepreneur had already exited:  Entrepreneurship is serious “way of life” that not everyone is cut out for. 

I could not have imagined that, after such a short time, these virtual strangers were not only living among each other, sharing rooms, dining together…they were blending into teams with palpable concern for each other’s success:  how refreshing, how restorative to the notion that people  really can get along.  I was so impressed…within minutes of arriving, I was shedding tears of celebration for this concept, these people, and this spirit.  

Giadha invited me to speak as a Mentor; first to the collective group, then on a more organic basis in smaller groups to those who wanted to share more with me, to learn more from me.  I was so honored to be invited in this capacity and could not be more pleased with how it all went. 

I know it was a successful mission, because I felt I got as much out of the experience as I hope I gave.  Don’t you love what giving and receiving can do for everyone?  

 

I am going to follow the journey of these Entrepreneurs, most especially, Konstantina Malliah and Susan Musleh, who learned about the Venture Camp opportunity through The IWLA and with whom I shared the deepest and most emotional moments.  These two amazing women, along with the other Entrepreneurs, promise to push possibility to its greatest degree of potential and leave Venture Camp strengthened, empowered, and determined to follow their own dreams and meet their own goals.

So, IS it just me, or do you, too, wish you could go camping?  Guess what?  YOU CAN!

Click on Photo to Register

To register for a future Venture Camp experience, please click the link to the right, below, register, and wait to hear back from The Venture Camp Team.