There is one week during the summer of 2018 I will never forget. I was a virtual mentor for the IEEW’s Peace Through Business Program in Kabul, Afghanistan. Each summer a select group of women entrepreneurs spends two weeks in Dallas Texas attending business classes. One week is spent working with a mentor and U.S. business owners on their business entity. My mentee owned a nursery, preschool, and kindergarten in Kabul. I lived in Lakewood, Colorado and she would be living with me for five days. I was to connect her with school owners and teachers in Lakewood and Denver who managed schools and programs like her school.

What I didn’t know, until she arrived at the Denver International Airport, was she could never be left alone except when we were at home. In the past, some mentees had come to the U.S. as program participants and then disappeared so as not to return to Afghanistan. I learned this while waiting for her in my car at the arrival door of the airport. I received a phone call from Dallas explaining I needed to meet her inside the terminal and escort her to my car. This was the beginning of a five-day cultural roller coaster ride full of surprises.

When we weren’t speaking to school representatives the young woman wanted to shop! And I mean shop like it was going out of style. The first store we visited was to find gifts for relatives and her employees. Ahh-the Dollar Store. Imagine spending over an hour in your local Dollar Store walking up and down each aisle to find just the right gift! Imagine finding a different fragrance for about twelve females. The Dollar Store has them!! After about 30 minutes I found a chair and sat by the front door.

The following afternoon after meetings we went to the Apple retail store in the Aspen Grove shopping center in Littleton. That's about a 30-minute drive. She needed some advice on a problem she was having with her iPad. Next door to the Apple store was Banana Republic and of course, it was having a sale. She found a couple of cotton shirts for her husband who was an engineer and traveled often for his job. GAP Kids was on the other side of the Apple store. She found two or three items for her daughter.

A couple of days later we went shopping at the Ulta Beauty store in the Lakewood Commons and then Target and DSW in the Belmar Shopping Center. This is where I really got an education on what Afghan women know about cosmetics and fashion. We spent an hour in Ulta looking over the merchandise. What I learned is that Afghan women know how to apply makeup without looking like they use any. My mentee had specific brands in mind that brought out her true beauty. One was e.l.f. and just as luck would have it, the store didn’t have the foundation she wanted. The cosmetic specialist working with us had no idea where we might get it. However, my young Afghan friend wasn’t going to buy just any make-up foundation. She decided to wait and see if we found it anywhere else.

Target was an adventure in itself. We were looking for different clothing items for her mother and sister. Once again, I had to find a chair and just sit and watch as my friend scoured the racks. Shopping at Target was a grand success. So, we didn’t need to go anywhere else EXCEPT to DSW.

Another surprise awaited at DSW. We were looking for shoes for her and her mother to wear at an Afghan wedding. The culture loves weddings. It is when the women and girls dress to the hilt in their national attire, clothing, and jewelry. And they love, yes LOVE high heels. Not just any high heels. I mean opened-toe or pointed toes 4” spiked high heels. You know the kind of high heels most doctors advise not to wear because they will ruin your feet. If not, they will help throw out your back. We found just the right pair for her and her mother. I honestly don’t know how they could wear shoes like those for the entire time of a wedding and reception with dancing.

Those were my memories of shopping with my guest from Afghanistan in the summer of 2018. There are other funny stories from that week. However, the last evening she was in town we decided to eat dinner out and see a movie. Wonder Woman was shown along with a love story and two family-oriented movies. Well, my mentee only wanted to see Wonder Woman. I was under the pre-conceived idea that being a Muslim she would not want to see it. I didn’t realize she had seen previews in Dallas and her religion and culture didn’t play a part in the movies she watched. This was a 27-year-old modern Muslim woman with a thriving business. A working mother who had recently lived in Germany and Japan because of her husband’s career as an engineer.

I don’t know which was more fun, watching her reactions during the movie or watching the movie. I think it was both.

After the movie we went home for her to pack her luggage-one large back pack and tote bag. She had a mid-morning flight to Dallas for the group’s graduation ceremony. She bought so many extra items there wasn’t room in her pack and tote for all of them. I loaned her one of my large cloth bags. The kind sold in an airport’s gift shop. There wasn’t time to ship her excess items by UPS to Dallas before she left for Afghanistan. That suitcase was jammed packed and cost $25.00 extra to take back to Dallas.  After our goodbyes and thank you her only comment  was “You know you won’t get this bag back, don’t you?” How well I knew that.

What will need to wait until another time is my story of what happened on the Interstate on our way to the airport in the morning. All I will say is that I had an accident and she had to take an early evening flight back to Dallas.

We have become good friends over the years. She moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to have her second child and open a saffron business. Her husband and first daughter, now seven were able to leave return to Canada after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan.

In high school, all I wanted was to be in fashion as a director for a retail store. I loved selling clothes, shoes, and accessories and then pulling them together to design store windows and interior displays. Throughout my college years and as a young adult my love for fashion and working in retail increased. I learned how to manage people and operate small retail specialty stores. It became evident that being an entrepreneur was second nature. I thrived on the idea of being an entrepreneur as much as I did in fashion.

I had learned all the hard skills to own a business and was learning the soft skills along the way. What I didn’t have were mentors or family encouragement and support. At the time most of the women entrepreneurs I knew were in partnership with a husband or family member. If they were in partnership with a friend, there was a husband, boyfriend, or brother in the background helping with decision-making.

I realized I needed a support system to become a successful business owner when I lost out on buying a womenswear boutique in Breckenridge Colorado. The store became a bargaining chip in a divorce settlement. At the time I didn’t have the resources to create the necessary support system. There weren’t any SBA Women’s Business Centers or Small Business Development Centers. So, I put being an entrepreneur on the back burner.

For several years I worked on projects and businesses across the country to empower and educate women as entrepreneurs.  During that time, I had a sweet spot for empowering and motivating high school girls to become successful in life. When I moved from the east coast to California a good friend insisted, I start a business to motivate and support high school girls as entrepreneurs. In New York City I had been the conference manager for the Women’s Leadership Exchange national conference series. It was designed for women entrepreneurs with fast-growth businesses. Women entrepreneurs were making significant strides in building companies that made a difference in their communities and globally. I witnessed how entrepreneurship helped build self-confidence in these women and the female members of their staff.

I created the Realizing A Vision conferences around the format of the Women’s Leadership Exchange conference format. The conference was open to girls ages 14 to 18 from all lifestyles and backgrounds. We made sure conference attendee badges didn’t indicate where the girls lived. That helped to make it a level playing field by building a support system and in relationship building. The conferences were a big hit. The girls attending always left excited and wanting more information and everyone wanted another conference in their area.

In 2013 the Girls’ C.E.O. Connection LLC launched a teen advisory council of girls who had attended at least one conference. While producing our conference on the Stanford University campus I met Professor William Damon, author of The Pathway to Purpose. He suggested adding a mentoring segment because too many high school girls don’t have the opportunity for consistent mentoring. I realized that mentoring was a missing piece for me when I first wanted to become an entrepreneur. While forming the Realizing a Vision Conferences and the Girls’ C.E.O. Connection I had subconsciously created a support system for young female entrepreneurs in high school. The same system along with the mentoring that I needed in high school when I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I’m thrilled to provide today’s aspiring and emerging female entrepreneur with the support she deserves.