You are your own mentor

Not sati sfi ed with that, Ramroop, who sti ll maintains ti es to his homeland and even has a house in his old neighbourhood, Maingot Road in Tunapuna, where he stays when he visits Trinidad, wants to promote this country as a centre of excellence in the fi eld of fashion.

Ramroop said that last July he sent a “prett y comprehensive” proposal to FashionTT through the Ministry of Trade and Industry to develop the fashion industry in Trinidad and Tobago. Although, he said, he has not yet received a response to his proposal, he is pursuing his dream on his own and designers from throughout the Caribbean will be showing their designs in Tobago in November.

He said the press from all over the world has been invited to come and see what the Caribbean has to off er. “If government wouldn’t support it, I will do it with my own money,” he said. He in Trinidad and Tobago but said people need guidance. “One of the points I made when I went to the London College of Fashion, (is that) an important component of the course that I did was Business Studies. So, you can learn a skill but you have got to be able to market that skill and develop that skill and by understanding basic principles of business that is going to help you to benefi t.” He conti nued, “…don’t wait for a mentor, that mentor is you. That mentor is between your ears, it is what do we want for ourselves and how do we want to develop ourselves. You’ve got to ask yourself the right questi ons: who am I? What am I here for? What do I intend to do with my life?” Looking back over his own life, Ramroop said even someone who failed the Common Entrance Examinati on, as he did, and did not go to secondary school or to university, sti ll has opti ons. “We are all responsible for everything we do, whether we want to stay in educati on, whether we want to go on to colleges and universiti es responsible. But you see, the nonacademic area that I came from is what I am very, very interested in because I believe we all have a part to play in our society.” He was making those points to hundreds of students at Scoti aInsights, a moti vati onal programme of Scoti abank, last Monday at The Teaching and Learning Complex at the University of the West Indies, St Augusti ne.

“And it’s so important that we appreciate everyone in whatever fi eld they are in. If they are not educated, it doesn’t mean to say that they are foolish. They’ve got intelligence, they have just got ability. So, if they can look at someone else’s work, they can develop and learn that way, it doesn’t have to be a writt en exam. A lot of us are very practi cal people and being practi cal persons maybe we can develop ourselves that way.” He said local entrepreneurs should not be discouraged because the country might be in recession, as this does not mean that their businesses are in recession. Indeed, Ramroop said that the current economic conditi ons might present a huge opportunity for expansion if business owners look for markets abroad. Using his own company, Maurice Sedwell, on London’s famous Savile Row as an example, he said he bought the company in 1988 but in the early 1990s the United Kingdom went into a deep recession, almost a depression, and that is when he expanded his business by looking for customers and markets abroad. He said at that ti me the company was only exporti ng one or two percent but now it exports 70% of the suits it makes to personal customers in 60 countries.

He made the point that his suits are luxury items, high quality bespoke suits costi ng ?6,000 each (about TT$60,000). He said, “They are expensive but they are aff ordable for people who can aff ord it.” Ramroop migrated to the United Kingdom at the age of 17 to pursue his dream of becoming a master tailor. At the Scoti abank Insights event, he detailed the many problems he encountered getti ng started in the trade both as a young man in Trinidad and Tobago and as a black person in London, telling the students, some from Servol’s Beetham Life Centre, that they should never give up their dreams despite whatever problems they might encounter. He told his youthful audience that if they have the confi dence, the passion and the will to succeed they should think of themselves as a business.

He said all the people who had turned him down before were preparing him for his future.

“Anyone who says ‘no’ to you is driving you on,” he said.

discussed the idea during a conversati on with the Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley and intended to raise it when he met later in the week with President Anthony Carmona.

Ramroop is convinced that the spirit of entrepreneurship exists we are responsible for that. No one can make us responsible, we are responsible. We need guidance and support, we need encouragement but we are