The attainment or failure of one�s dreams and aspirations remains largely the individual�s responsibility. This resonates well with the belief system of 26-year-old Oren Kgosietsile, a Germany-based Motswana young man who runs E.G.Y.P.T Footwear, a shoe manufacturing business that he birthed in 2020 when the world was caught up in the whirlwind of COVID-19. �E.G.P.Y.T is an acronym for Everything God�s Yearns Patience &Time�, he explains, adding that he wanted �something that would reflect my lifestory and that people could relate to as well allowing them to be and express themselves�. Narrating how his business started, when the world was dead silent save for the deafening sound from the constant churning out of statistics of the lives that the pandemic was claiming by the numbers daily, the Kanye-native says he used the stillness of time to look within and decide which of his interests he would love to pursue should his own life be spared. �I had many interests and desires, and one of the good things that came out of corona was that everyone had a time to sit down and think about what to do and that is where the business came from. It came from playing around with a couple of ideas,� he says. After settling for the shoe manufacturing idea, but armed with not much except for the burning desire to see his dream take off, Mr Kgosietsile got to work, foraging for as much information as he could stomach regarding the business and networking with as many as would let him in, all in readiness to spread his wings and get flying. He started designing his shoes right away but it was only a year later in 2021 that production got underway in Italy with the collaboration of an Italy-based corporation whose details he will only make public once some outstanding issues pertaining to their partnership have been put to bed. The market�s response, as would ordinarily have been expected was mixed. However, with his positive outlook he chose to use the not-so-pleasant feedback to effect improvements to his work. While still pretty much in its infancy, the economics student and budding entrepreneur�s shoe business is indeed a flower readying itself to bloom. German footwear shoes range from P2 800 (I94 Euro) and P3 700 (254 Euro) a pair and the shoes are manufactured on demand as the entrepreneur does not keep readily made shoes. Given the business�s performance due to the support it is getting from the markets of both Germany and Botswana, Mr Kgosietsile is optimistic of a rosy future. However, it is a future in whose glory the self-funded young entrepreneur would not enjoy basking alone; he wants his fellow youths to tag along, making use of the empowerment programmes which government has made accessible to them. Though Mr Kgosietsile faults Botswana�s education system for producing people who are only ready for the job market, he equally lays the blame on the doorsteps of the school leavers for holding tight to the notion that government should school them and then hire them. To him, the signs have lingered on long enough for young Batswana to have realised that the days of slumber were practically over hence they need to change tract and look to entrepreneurship as a way out of the shackles of lack of job opportunities. In Botswana in particular, he feels a couple of sectors such as the tech industry, sports, the creative industry and indeed agriculture still remain largely untapped and that the youth should consider looking for business opportunities within those. �Even if it�s resource-based, whether it�s a clothing business or creatives you have to find a way to make sure that it is also accessible digitally and in that way you shift your market view to include external markets like SADC and even outside the region,� Mr Kgosietsile notes, and adds how this is an example of the sort of impact that the digital transformation initiative that President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi is driving would have for entrepreneurs. For the youths currently wading the often murky waters of entrepreneurship, Mr Kgosietsile has words of comfort to those complaining of inadequate support. �Do not be deterred by lack of support. Support always comes late. Of course a tiny fraction of entrepreneurs shoot to success overnight but those are rather the exception and not the model,� he says as he implores them to hold on and not give up. He also debunks the myth that Batswana are always slow and reluctant to support one of their own. To him the phenomenon is not a Batswana problem, rather it is a people problem borne out of a lack of faith in a person or their products, and that it is the entrepreneur who carries the onus to have people develop faith in them and the goods and services that they offer. Mr Kgosietsile, one of the Batswana resident in Germany who attended a meet and greet session that President Masisi hosted in Munich, is hopeful that government�s efforts to prod Batswana into embracing entrepreneurship through the availing of empowerment and support programmes will someday pay off.