-Young entrepreneur recalls journey towards his goals

By Alisa Lashley

THE business landscape in Guyana has seen a rise in youth entrepreneurship, as increasing numbers of young people are beginning to see the need to become more self-sufficient. However, the journey towards becoming your own boss is never an easy road,ut hard work and perseverance always pay off.

Twenty-five-year-old Courtlee Rodrigues, the owner/ proprietor of Congruence International, serves as one such youth, who embodies hard work and perseverance through his journey of becoming his own boss.

Although life was tough growing up for Courtlee, he expressed that even though he always held strong in the hope that things would eventually get better, indulging in books at an early age became his way of escaping the realities of life.
“Moving into Sophia when the squatting had just begun gave my parents the opportunity to choose a plot of land for themselves, in hopes that the area would develop into a community.
Life for most of my childhood, we had no electricity so mom would burn lamps and
read stories for my sister and I before bed. Books became my first way of escape, and later became my tools. There is no need to run from a reality that we can fix, and I sought to fix my reality since the majority of my living was uncomfortable. I had things that money could not buy, and so I set out to get the things that money could have bought,” he expressed.

Describing his secondary school years as the most horrible time in his life, Courtlee noted that it was the constant love and support from his parents that prevented him from self-sabotaging his future and aided him through those days and geared him towards where he is today.

“I was bullied in my neighbourhood and at school. Older children would say I talk too much and knew too much, was annoying etc and so I’d be picked on, slapped, spat on, sprayed with spray paint… it was by far the most horrible time in my life. My grades, since joining secondary school, took a dive as I tried to fit in with everyone as a means of avoiding being bullied,” he said. “ But if I had the opportunity to go back and change those times, I wouldn’t have because it made me who I am today. I might have become horrid if it wasn’t [sic] for the love and care of my mother and the kind words of my father. Needless to say, my struggles continued from then into early adulthood.”

After secondary school, the young entrepreneur joined the Guyana Defence Force as a cadet officer in training and would later leave to pursue his studies at the University of Guyana. While attending the university, Courtlee worked a full-time job at John Fernandes Limited to sustain his household and to pay for his tuition. After the hardship of working and studying took a toll on him, he decided to resign his job to follow his long-term dream of becoming an employer instead of an employee.

“Congruence International was birthed from this need to make lives better. I picked up the habit of meditating after reading about it from a business book — Think and Grow Rich was the name of the book- I found that the [word]‘Congruence’ graced me frequently during these meditation sessions and I promptly sought to find out what the word meant. Congruence International was the best name for a company that had the goal of making lives better and bringing people together. Congruence is defined as ‘the state achieved by coming together,’” he articulated.

With 17 employees under its belt, Congruence International serves as a small company that fosters several branches of businesses that seek to provide consumers across all class spectrums with the best product and services at an affordable cost.

“It started with Sharon’s Diner, Congruence Shipping (on-line shopping and shipping services), Hinds Designs, Congruence Penmanship that was started during the pandemic to provide assistance for students and Congruence Currencies that seeks to provide loans,” Courtlee noted.

When asked where he expects his business to be in a few years, Courtlee expressed, “I see my business as a global business.

With branches in countries around the world. As long as people are there, Congruence International will be there. I have plans to diversifying [sic] my business portfolio and venturing into international trade with a specific list of products that are of high demand on the global market,” he said.

Courtlee further implored young and up-and-coming entrepreneurs to read, to work towards growing as an individual and to develop themselves in the business arena. “They hide the good stuff in the books,” he noted.