From a child­hood filled with crick­et, foot­ball, and end­less days out­doors in Fyz­abad, Shel­don Stephen’s jour­ney in­to en­tre­pre­neur­ship and event pro­duc­tion was nev­er part of a rigid plan; it was some­thing that un­fold­ed nat­u­ral­ly, shaped by en­vi­ron­ment, in­stinct, and an ear­ly dri­ve to suc­ceed.

At 39, Stephen re­flects on a youth ground­ed in sport and fam­i­ly, cred­it­ing his sis­ters, Lisa Stephen and Sharon Stephen, and his par­ents, Os­mond Stephen and Sue Stephen, for play­ing piv­otal roles in shap­ing his char­ac­ter. Like many young boys in Trinidad and To­ba­go, his first dream was root­ed in sport. Crick­et, in par­tic­u­lar, stood out.

“I re­al­ly want­ed to be­come a crick­eter… I played re­gion­al­ly and was push­ing to­ward that in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el,” he shared. But an in­jury at just 15 years old shift­ed the course of his life, forc­ing him to look be­yond the bound­ary ropes and in­to new pos­si­bil­i­ties.