No it wasn’t the set of a Disney movie...the indians were real!

You may recall the postings about the visit to the Sitting Bull College and to the Standing Rock Indian reservation few months ago. In North Dakota we met an outstanding leader and educator named (Big) Dave Archambould. Dave is also the Chairman of the American Indian Business Leaders association, a non per profit organization that aim to prepare American Indian students for leadership positions in business and in life.

The association encourages college and high school students to gather once a year to listen, learn and exchange ideas. The trick is that it is the students who pick the venue for their meetings and who have to raise the funds to attend the gatherings. You can imagine then why we met across the street from Disneyworld in California!

Fun aside, we did some work, and in particular we explored the Trinity of Management® as it applies to start up businesses. Many Indian Colleges have both entrepreneurial classes and micro lending for future entrepreneurs. As you can imagine to accesss the funding prospective entrepreneurs have to enrol in business classes that focus on business plan preparation with an emphasis on literacy and numeracy skills. The results are not good and few entrepreneurs finish the courses and avail themselves of available finances. Those who do often struggle in the business once removed from the comfort of the classroom environment. A better way needs to be found and the Trinity of Management® could offer a more natural way for American Indians to go into business. After all they understand very well that in a harsh environment you don’t survive alone. I told them that in business the problems can come at you from every direction and that it is therefore important to keep an eye on the entire horizon. It takes three people to keep a clear focus on 360% of horizon…one person will never be able to do it alone!

Will they remember when they will start their businesses? Who knows, but I am pretty sure that they will link my face to a very happy time in their lives, with all thos