The post COVID-19 era marks a significant change in the minds of the young people. They have witnessed how the world has adapted to so much change in matter of days. Early in their lives they have encountered a deep reality and I see that influencing their plans for the future.
With disruptions and changes in ways of learning, interacting, transacting and overall behaving in the society, young people are moving away quickly from the legacy beliefs of a defined future with a 9 to 5 job. What is clear is that becoming an entrepreneur is quickly becoming the number one choice for “Generation Next” – as many young people already want to break away from the fixed salary jobs. It’s not just the established big businesses that help society get through a crisis like COVID-19 but a new generation of up-and-coming entrepreneurs who are fostering innovation, ensuring future sustainability, focusing on building safe, equitable business models are strong contenders in the game.
The revolutionary startups who are struggling yet hungry to establish something new are the biggest source of inspiration to young minds! I see two primary traits of these future startups: number one is agility and the other is resilience. Consumer expectations have changed. People are much more at ease with using new technology. So It is certainly becoming easier to become an entrepreneur and think beyond geographic boundaries. Cloud-based tech business has more than halved costs in starting and running a business. It’s also much easier to access new technology. Websites and platforms that integrate a tech stack enable small businesses to market products to a wider audience, with better connections and transparency between buyers, sellers, and partners. Thus, becoming an entrepreneur and building a small business is now the number one option when it comes to the gen Z young people.
· The young people are more informed and at par with global concerns, they have high awareness on building a sustainable world and speak a common language. They are more equipped to make the largest impact in the society, such as
· They see what others see, but see it from several different angles and perspectives
· They are good at spotting and observing the emerging trends even before it is noticed
· They are creators, who do not mind taking risk, looking weird or sounding ridiculous
· They get propelled by how they can make it work, focused on multiple solutions
· They are interested in how a seemingly unnoticed common problem or pain of masses can create opportunity for a new business
· They fail often, but get around the failures by resounding success
· They disrupt the existing and set new trends by thinking, asking, doing what was not done by most
· They are the biggest learners; they learn from every walk of life and from everyone
· They challenge status-quo, themselves and the experts
Let’s encourage our next generation to follow this behavior of constant learning from everywhere. Let’s encourage them try and fail and learn. Whenever their passion, idea and time to market are in resonance there is bound to be many more Steve or Gates or Ayman or Afeef in the limelight. The future entrepreneurs will create the leap of our economy. We need not only a young workforce who are fit to join work but even more people to think differently and contribute to the creation of more and more jobs in the market. To create something fabulous that has a 10X ripple effect in the economy. The Gen Z entrepreneurs will propel the growth of Bangladesh to become the developed nation of 2041.
