Dr. Mike Gibbs, CEO and Co-founder of Camp BizSmart and BizSmart Global created BizMe: “Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will!” five day session to challenge students purposefully gain essential skills that will help them to pursue and achieve their goals and therefore control their own destiny. The launch of the first session was held at John F. Kennedy University in San Jose, CA on July 9-13, 2012.
Why talk about about controlling your destiny? Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) wrote the following:
Destiny
‘Your beliefs become your values,Your values become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words,Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits,Your habits become your destiny.”
Students worked in teams of three as they gained skills in self awareness and goal setting and their own individual BizMe plan. Students prepared their individual BizMe Plan to be ready to present it to a panel of judges who listened for a thoughtful and compelling plan to achieve the goals the student was pursuing.
Biz Me Plan Elements
Dr. Mike Gibbs, CEO and Cofounder of BizSmart Global along with Dr. Ellen Pieterse, lead the students through BizMe curriculum. Dr. Mike as the students call him, is an organizational psychologist and consultant to Fortune 500 companies internationally. Dr. Ellen, is an executive coach and trainer also to Fortune 500 companies. Together they were able to guide the students through skill building, hands-on exercises to gain the essential understanding and skills needed for the BizMe plan competition and later in their academic and career objectives.
Dr. Ellen Pieterse, BizMe Camp Director and executive coach expert
BizMe Competition Winning Team: Emilio Moreno, Crystal Cervantes and Meagan Benensohn
The students were also competing for the overall most compelling personal BizMe Plan, and the title of “entrepreneur of the year” for this session. Meagan Benensohn received this honor and was awarded a full tuition scholarship to attend the Camp BizSmart Stanford University 10 day business and entrepreneur academy on July 23-Aug 3, 2012.
Meagan Benesohn named "entrepreneur of the year" for this session with BizMe Camp Directors Dr. Mike Gibbs and Dr. Ellen Pieterse
Dr. Mike Gibbs, Peggy Gibbs and Dr. Ellen Pieterse, judged the BizMe presentations
During the five day BizMe Academy, students listened to successful young student entrepreneurs, each with a different area of interest and talents. Three of the four students who appeared were past Camp BizSmart graduates who also had the distinction of being on winning student business competition teams. As part of their award for being a winning team, students went to the corporate offices of the company who had sponsored their business case and met with the top executives about their teams’ business product solution. Sandra Herchen who had been on a Camp BizSmart Neurosky team in 2011, told about how she had obtained an internship with Neurosky, accomplished by not only having the skills that they needed, but also because she was patient though persistent to wait for the right moment when an internship opportunity came available that matched her talents and the company’s timing. Claire Wang, a 2010 Camp BizSmart graduate and a winning team for Club One Fitness, told how she achieved her personal goals through dedication to hard work and percise team work to be an Olympic champion swimming on the highly recognized women’s synchronized swimming team. Gregory Hosano, Camp BizSmart graduate, 2010 and team Hara winner, talked about writing for Teens in Tech, interning at the d.school at Stanford. Finally, Anshul Samar, who the founders of Camp BizSmart and BizSmart Global met in 2009, has spoken to our students about starting up his own company, Alchemist Empire Inc., which allowed him to produce his Elementeo Chemistry Card game, when in the 6th grade. While it took him 3 years to achieve his goal of running his own company, he says the following: ” My entrepreneurial journey has been a wild adventure. Anyone at any age can indeed create a reality out of his/her dreams, combat with the obstacles, and conquer the world! “ Anshul was preparing to enter Stanford University in September and was also able to talk about having an academic goal. These four students all with different skills, talents, interests and goals, provided the BizMe students with their own examples of how they had each achieved goals through thoughtful planning, setting objectives, hard work and persistence.
Teen Entrepreneurs with Dr, Mike, tell their personal stories, Sandra Herchen, Anshul Samar, Claire Wang, and Gregory Hosano with BizMe students
In addition, there were older entrepreneurs who had years of success and career wisdom to share with the students. Guy Berry is a successful commercial pilot and Brian Moran is a successful musician, composer and teacher.
Dr. Mike Gibbs with Guy Berry and Brian Moran
Harry Motro, was the CEO of Infoseek, is a successful multi-media artist and also a psychologist.
Harry Motro with student Sam Baron
Students discussed their interests, passions, talents and skills and learned how to set goals and objectives to achieve their objectives in life. They also gained skills in how to tell their personal story and present their vision and plan to achieve their goals. As Dr. Mike would say, many people have dreams, but successful entrepreneurs have goals.
Aditya Reddy Camp BizSmart Graduate, Student Entrepreneur and Facilitator listens to ideas from students
BizMe Logo created by student
