We Are Driven

So in fantastic Friday fashion the We Are Driven series continues this week with the spotlight on a young entrepreneur who has his sights set on the stars. Born and raised in Bois D’Orange, Gros Islet in St. Lucia Myron Yarde is proud to call the Helen of the West “Home Sweet Home”. However like many of us our dreams lead us away from home in the pursuit of life, love and liberty. We run into our twenty something year old business pro on his way to greatness and gain an insight into what keeps driving him forward.

Q:Graduating year and area of degree:

A:B.S. Business; Education 2009 Andrews University

Q:What was it like as a child growing up in St. Lucia?

A:Fun. A lot of good times; Saint Lucian people love to have fun so there was always something happening. The beach, liming with friends or just being out…….. But also it wasn’t always 100%, so if you didn’t learn to work with what was available or make more available you wouldn’t be happy.

Q:At what age did you realize that you had the innate desire to do great things and what have you done to feed this ambition?

A:It was not a specific age; I always loved to read…. as long as I can remember… I would read whatever I put my hands on. The books I read made me see things from other perspectives; I was then able to create my own reality in my head and work towards it.Eventually I developed this audacity where I believed that anyone can help me achieve my goals if I asked the right way at the right time. I feed it by reading and setting impossible goals.

Q:People you look to for advice and guidance:

A:I don’t usually ask for advice but I would pitch ideas to my close friends and let them find holes or weaknesses in them. I use their criticism to build up my ideas; my parents usually give me advice whether I ask or not but I never listen.

Q:The idea/concept behind Caribonix?

A:(Smiles) It’s quite a story. It started with an application that I was working on with my business partner Conlan King while in university. We were trying to create a platform to help Caribbean companies make regional and international business easier. It was just an idea that we had big plans for to connect the Caribbean to the rest of the world. My roommate and a mutual friend of ours Oudin Samuel at the same time had this idea to start his web design business Caribonix because of his love for design and ICT. We figured that working together would allow us to do more with our talent and love for what we do. Conlan is the Innovation King and Oudin is the Smart Guy who knows how to run the projects well, I just fit right in with my love for marketing, ideas and people. We used the Caribonix name because it fit perfect; since then, we have been using our business to create innovative on and offline business solutions with websites, internet programs/applications and internet and b2b marketing (business to business marketing). The synergy is amazing and the rewards are great.. our vision is to create a new Caribbean by introducing to our clients, employees and community to a standard of excellence..

Q:Future hopes/aspirations/goals/business ventures?

A:In the future I hope to be more involved in education in the Caribbean possibly partnering with schools for research; a change agent. I believe that if we can conduct more research for application rather than information we can have a new Caribbean in this generation.
The present goal is and will continue to be: to grow Caribonix to be a leader for innovation and a model to follow for startups and existing businesses.

Q:If you had to outline a diet for “greatness” what elements/character traits would it comprise
of and why?

A:The diet that I use;
- be a slave: for every hour you spend sleeping or hanging out… spend two or more
working
towards your goal and learning. Why? You will become consistent by habit
- be fearless, Why? being fearless allows you to worry less so you live with less
stress.
- Give people more than they expect. Why? You will stand out among thousands; that helps
- Always expose yourself to varied perspectives. Why? It gives you a better view of life and
helps you to relate to people better.

Q: A few great things about being an entrepreneur:

A:It is a great feeling that you wake up every morning to slave to build something that you will
always be a part of. It’s rewarding; if we work hard enough we will sometimes reach our limit;
an employee has an option to quit at that point or keep going…. An entrepreneur just keeps
going.. no need to think.

Q:Your views on the state of affairs in relation to small businesses in the Caribbean.
There are many small businesses with great potential; some of us are not operating at 50% of
our true potential. Entrepreneurs have the capability to revive the economy and establish the
Caribbean in a greater way if we can come together

Q:One thing all entrepreneurs should know from the start:

A:Keep your goal in mind especially when having a hard time.

Q:One word that has motivated you from day one:
A:FREEDOM

Q:The best part of having dreams and working to achieve them:

A:I don’t know….The harder you work the better you become at what you do?

Q:A few years from now I hope to be........

A: The best at what I do.

Beyond the shadow of any doubtful minds Myron has his sights on being something rather than nothing. His commitment to being a slave to his dreams may sound hash but in reality that is the only way to guarantee greatness. I can recall in Michael Gladwell’s book Outlier mentions the concept of 10,000 hours saying that it is a bench mark to measure how knowledgeable and successful an individual is in his/her particular field. It’s safe to say that Myron has started his journey of a thousand hours and will make the world a better place once he does.

As we head out to the weekend I leave you with the words of Colin Powell “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier”.

Be inspired, be great.

Be sure to check out the Caribonix facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Caribonix