I just wrote this blog post for the Ideaz Factory blog, but I though I’d post it here. I really was inspired by the amazing submissions for the Ideaz Prize.

Entrepreneurship brings optimism anywhere, and is known to be a key factor in the development process of any entity, be it a country, nation, or organization. Entrepreneurs are celebrated because they offer the promise of fiscal and professional liberty, autonomy and progress for the entrepreneur himself/herself and the country as a whole. This encourages associations, governmental bodies, and others to support entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.
It is no surprise that Ideaz Factory wanted to be (and is being actively) encouraging of entrepreneurs in Lebanon.Ideaz Factory noticed that with all the brilliant minds in Lebanon, we needed to kick some inspiration into the residents of Lebanon, and so set up the Ideaz Prize. With the submission deadline passing last night, we went to bed with 139 ideaz from 139 entrepreneurs who made it to the next stage of the competition, with excited anticipation of who will make it to the final 15 and ultimately win the Ideaz Prize. It was definitely inspiring, and definitely made us hopeful.
What does it mean to be an entrepreneur in a country like Lebanon?All of the Ideaz Prize applicants were individuals who demonstrated creativity, established the skill of being able to efficiently use their own available resources, and came up with business models that added immense value to these resource, turning them into brilliant ideaz. They were all able to make sure that a business they came up with would income that would be self-sustaining and furthermore profitable to the entrepreneur, the possible investors, the Lebanese society, and their own communities.
Ideaz Factory believes that the reason the Ideaz Prize was successful is because entrepreneurship will arise naturally in environments that are encouraging, supportive, and involved in the innovativeness of entrepreneurs. This is type of atmosphere, which was created by the Ideaz Prize competition, was motivation for many to be an entrepreneur and be involved in entrepreneurial thinking – it’s a conducive environment for innovative development for these young entrepreneurs, while there is still encouragement from successful entrepreneurs they can look up to.Seeing this and the benefits of entrepreneurship in overall development, I simply cannot wait to see who the judges pick for their final 15. Best of luck to all who made it through, you have been an inspiration.