CHANGING CANDY FOR BUSINESS…
Where dreams face reality.
Less than 10 years ago the word “entrepreneurship” was starting to have echo in Mexico. The industrial and commercial context was not very promising for new generations that have access to 10 times more information than their predecessors. Media and Internet were since then, a way of life for people that were born on the 80´s and 90´s, and employability indicators started becoming entrepreneurship indicators.
I´m part of a generation that falls between Millennials, also called Peter Pan Generation (referred like this by Kathleen Shaputis) and X Generation. I don´t fill in the profile of a “digital native” either consider myself individualist or lonely (2). So I belong to a generation that like many others (and I can assure that because I know them) we strive for X Gen but understand the value of adapting to a Millennial Gen. We are on those lost years (1980–1985) that some consider part of one Gen and others part of the other.
- Peter Pan Generation-
So what is this about: my background and context allows me to analyze the changes we´ve passed through in very few years and identify the after and before with no means of criticizing (only a little bit) but to understand and to know how to react to this new challenges. With entrepreneurship being a generational subject, I will like to approach it from my particular point of view.
Lets start by saying that the entrepreneur is that person capable of creating a positive change and turning creativity and innovation into operational day-by-day activities. I mean, capable of translating dreams into actions and high impact results. We hear more and more every time about this terms and about organisms, forums and systems that support and stimulate these scenarios.
It seems clear and evident: entrepreneurship is now the best path to achieve personal, professional and even emotional goals. Is the opportunity to do what we love to and live from it, brake cycles and circles of work atmospheres that does not fulfill us, but rather are imposed social ideologies. Nevertheless, to undertake is easier than it seems.
The interesting thing is that we still talk about starting a business as the critical point when it really is about the “after” and the “what then”. I will even propose to create an organism that focuses its efforts on the post-entrepreneurship and consolidation of Companies. Somebody that tells you: it´s about working hard, never giving up and “figuring out another way to do something” as Daymond John said. What changes is that, you work hard to do what you love.
New generations can confuse business with candies. People used to unwrap candies and enjoy them the same way they do now, but it was called “starting a Company”. These days, they enjoy the taste of excitement and while the uncertainty of planning and unwrapping is there, risks and consequences are not on the mental, physical, emotional or financial map (if there is one). A “bit” of a lot of lack of commitment, not understanding the real meaning of sacrifice and of real hard work (almost obsessive persistency), is what makes millennials feel that this candy does not makes them feel satisfied, and the only thing left are dental cavities and the need of opening another candy. There are a few that get it: to have something stable (for sure) you have to really work for it and not vice versa: you need something stable to work for it.
So a personal advice: its important to know that dreams will face reality, once in a while it will struggle them, but exactly there is where you need to dream more and harder. A new way of thinking and assimilating is required, right there where dreams become a problem, these problems become possibilities and possibilities turn into assertive and concrete actions.
Try some candies, but learn when to prepare for the banquet…
*As a good pseudo-millennial, these facts I really didn´t study them in a very deep way, I just Google it, I loved the “Peter Pan” definition that the author explains, referring to this community that extends their maturity reaching point till there is no other option (yes that´s ,me)… I Can´t Adult easily and I hope I never do (what ever that means).