Entrepreneurship is in fashion, so the number of millennials and Gen Z who want to start their career in the working world by creating their startup is constantly growing.
According to a study by the Kauffman Foundation, 54% of them aim to start a business. A few years ago, it seemed that if you had no experience in the working world, you could not create a company from 0, but we are in the Facebook era, in which a student started this social network from his dorm room.
In recent years, companies like Snapchat or Dropbox have been created thanks to university students, and they have achieved enormous success in society.
Many students see that thanks to the success of the companies, they can leave their career and dedicate themselves to managing the startup, but this is not entirely right either, since sometimes we lack the theoretical knowledge necessary to train and succeed. Need to say a few words about generations.
Millennials (1981-1993 or 1996)
It is the first generation that can be considered global. Unlike previous generations, there are no differences between countries, and all young Westerners can identify with the same values.
They have grown up with the beginnings of digitalization, and the economic crisis marked their access to the labor market. It will be interesting to see how this ‘slow’ start in their professional careers affects their future.
Also known as ‘minis, it is a stigmatized generation that has been described as lazy, individualistic, gentrified… but it is also these young people who promoted healthy living, healthy eating, and environmentalism.
Generation Z (1994-2010)
This is the generation that has taken over from the millennials. They are at most 23 years old and outnumber their predecessors.
They are more entrepreneurial than millennials. They learn fast and self-taught, making them much more irreverent than their millennial peers, educated with more rigid systems.
Generation Z is experiencing the democratization of access to opportunities. It no longer matters who your father is or where you were born. Only your talent counts.
They are digital natives and use this advantage to seek new career opportunities in an increasingly changing labor market.
They are very creative young people with high adaptability to new environments. Most of them begin their education in the era of online learning.
Also, they know that they will have to adapt to new work realities and have a lot of geographical mobility in an increasingly global world.
Youth and Technology Binomial
This generation is the first to be born in the digital age. Their mastery of new technologies is innate, and almost half of them spend between 6 and 10 hours connected to their cell phones.
They distrust the traditional education system, and in many cases, they have access to information directly and faster than their teachers.
Their attitude is irreverent in the sense that they question absolutely everything.
Therefore, we can say that there is a high probability of gen z developing startups in parallel with studies and with no money at the start which is more than possible.
Technology and Entrepreneurship
Some universities used to teach entrepreneurship but decided to stop giving these classes. Now Google has taken advantage of the entrepreneurship pull and has decided to launch a specific career for this purpose.
However, we need to be used to entrepreneurship from a young age and not be afraid of failure.
Technology is also very important, and in many schools, computer science is not given the necessary importance.
As well as writing a wow essays, it is a fun subject for many students to pass the time, and in most cases, it is limited to students playing educational computer games.
However, perhaps it would be necessary to prepare young people to learn programming languages or use web design and image editing tools from an early age.
Technology and entrepreneurship are complementary since the needs that exist today – and will come in the future – require it in this way.
The expansion of on-demand services has made the current figure of the entrepreneur obsolete, so we must prepare millennials and Gen Z to adapt to the needs of the market at all future times.
We cannot teach things that will be obsolete in 5 years when students have not yet entered the working world.
Problems Have Solutions
Today, many startups are created because millennials and Gen Z want to solve their problems. One example is iCracked, which was started when its creator’s iPhone screen broke.
The startup has revenues of $25.2 million, 2,400 employees worldwide, and 25% revenue growth every month.
It has become a giant in Apple device repairs by offering different locations at competitive prices.
Another example is HourlyNerd, which started as a class project at Harvard University. The project consisted of matching MBA students with small businesses to serve as consultants.
But this project began to grow into a company with more than 10,000 independent consultants and $12.5 million in funding.
It now has clients such as Microsoft, General Electric, and Coca-Cola and is growing very fast.
The latter example still has students in college. Harvard has a strong focus on case studies and analyzing why companies work or don’t work, so its founders decided to pursue the project alongside their education.
However, many do not see it that way and choose to leave the university, considering it a plan B if their project fails.
In Business Schools, networking is very important, almost more important than the education received, so many can afford to drop out of school thanks to having a good network of contacts at the university.
Conclusion
In short, studies are necessary, but knowing whether or not to drop them when creating a successful startup is even more important.
We need to soak up knowledge, ideas, and networking before we can be sure that we can create a good company; otherwise, we will fail and go back to university with the loss of time that this will have entailed.
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