29.10.2016
Amy Cosper: Entrepreneurship is creating something new, innovative or disruptive where nothing was before
Valmir Mehmetaj, Kosovo 2.0 (www.kosovotwopointzero.com) – American entrepreneur talks about pursuing the “Cool” profession. What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? According to a simple Google search, it is “a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.”
But if this definition comes across as dry, there’s always the perspective of Amy Cosper to consider. An entrepreneur for more than a decade, Cosper believes that any entrepreneur should not take no for answer, but rather be driven by the desire to “chase your dreams, change the world and make an impact,” while “creating something new, or innovative or disruptive, where nothing was before.”
Cosper is known as one of the most successful figures in the world of entrepreneurship. She admits that she did not get her “boost” from her degree in Italian and Art History, but by doing what she loved. She started as a reporter in 1995 for the tech world, reporting from Israel, Norway, Luxembourg, Brazil, Paris and London. Afterwards she ran several award-winning financial magazines, before in 2008 becoming vice president and editor-in-chief at Entrepreneur Media Inc., a U.S. based magazine and website that covers news stories about entrepreneurship and small business management.
Going through some of her articles, it is easy to see that Cosper is a fighter. She did not despair even when her house burned down in 2010, and her family of four — two teenagers and two adults — lived in a trailer until their house was reconstructed. She wrote that it only made her stronger: “We didn’t crack. We became stronger, better. We proved that we would survive. Yes, rising from the ashes is a cliche, but I happen to know that it’s also literally true. There was life before the fire and life after, and the two couldn’t be more different.”
That’s an experience that could resonate with many people in Kosovo, which she visited last week as a speaker at the fifth edition of KOSICT, the regional conference organized by Kosovo Association of Information and Communication Technology (STIKK), with the aim of bringing global IT trending topics to the Balkans. This year, the conference brought together speakers from a range of leading companies, including Google and LinkedIn.
However, Cosper told the audience that she decided to take a break from the world of media at the end of August, when she left her top role at Entrepreneur magazine. She is now pursuing other life goals, including writing a book, traveling, riding her motorcycle, and making a documentary.
In an interview for K2.0, Cosper said that she was thrilled to meet some of the people of Kosovo, whom she described as very ambitious to make something special and put themselves on the map. As someone who has taken on the mission of spreading the “good word” of entrepreneurship, for Cosper to be successful, one of the core rules is not to fear failure but to look past the fear, because that is the place where “experience, knowledge, empowerment, wisdom and success” await.
In order to read the full interview, please follow this link: http://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/amy-cosper-entrepreneurship-is-creating-something-new-innovative-or-disruptive-where-nothing-was-before/
