Millennial entrepreneurs. Just saying the word stirs up a variety of emotions. Ask the Baby Boomers or the Gen Xers and you will spark a conversation with a passion akin to politics. Talk to the millennials and you’ll get a few eye rolls and a lot of “I urge, please stop labeling me a millennial”. Often they get the bad rap, but they are the future of our country.
Independent, business oriented millennial entrepreneurs have beaten traditional career paths and have become an inevitable force in the small business milieu. In spite of the recession-wounded economy, the millennial entrepreneurs are building companies and some potentially amazing things to say about the process. By 2018, millennial entrepreneurs will make 50% of the workforce. Scary predicament, right? It not at all too surprising when you think about it: a generation reared on social media.
Millennials as Entrepreneurs
The millennial entrepreneurs, age eighteen to thirty five, are much more than what people see on the surface. They aren’t lazy, texting, squirrels as some may say. This is a generation that is persistent and more successful. Indubitably, we surely have a few unsuccessful or unmotivated people but that does not change the story.
The millennial generation is creating a better society and a robust economy. They are learned and super conscious about protecting the Mother Earth. The data tells us that the majority of millennials aren’t crafting careers out of the traditional office jobs their predecessors pursued. In one of the Deloitte poll, 70% of the millennial entrepreneurs say they’d reject traditional business and work on their own craft. And in a separate study, one out of five say that they want to quit their current jobs and start their own project.
Also Read: Top 10 Harvard dropouts who made it big
The desire to start a business is strong in undergraduates, as around 60% hope to do so after graduation, and 45% of think that they really will. Some didn’t even wait for that long as 20% started their own business while still in college. However, as the study suggests, 30% believe that even though they have entrepreneurial aspirations, they probably won’t take the LEAP.
Related: Entrepreneurs who made it big before 20!
What is holding the millennials back?
So what could be holding some millennials back from entrepreneurship? The foremost reason is the lack of “business know-how”. The toll is nearly 70%.
Lack of confidence can also be a major hurdle for them.
Related: Uncertainty in starting up? Here’s how you can deal with it!
Additionally, another factor holding back millennials may be the time investment required to get a business off the ground. With student loan debt at an all time high, there’s a significant and inevitable pressure for college graduates to get a job as soon as possible, whether it aligns with their degree or not.
However, working for some other company isn’t exactly conducive to launching your own. Still, if the entrepreneurial spirit is way too high, these obstacles can be overcome by adaption and sacrifice.
Well some did! So here goes the YOUNG RICH LIST
Andrew Mason
Worth an estimated $600 million
Andrew Mason is the founder and CEO of the online business Groupon which you have all more than likely heard about or used before. The aim of the website is to offer out daily deals to people all over the world via an online coupon service.
Matthew Mullenweg
Worth an estimated $250 million
Matthew Mullenweg is the founding developer of WordPress, a resource which a lot of us use on a daily basis. Funnily enough his background is anything but technical. He went to a school where he learned to play the Jazz Saxophone, and then he went on to create one of the best website and blog programs in the world. His credo is very simple, “I don’t have big ideas. I sometimes have small ideas, which seem to work out.”
Mark Zuckerberg
Worth an estimated $51.2 billion.
An American entrepreneur, hailing from the White plains, New York who co-founded and is currently the CEO of the social networking giant: Facebook. Co-founded Facebook when he was 21.
Also Read: Why did Zuckerberg failed to fool India using Free Basics?
Dustin Moskovitz
Worth an estimated $9.2 billion.
Now this man may be a little less familiar than Mark. In fact he was one of the co-founders of Facebook along with Mark. However, he left the company in 2008 and has now set up his own business, Asana. It is a company that tackles the problems of workplace collaborations.
Evan Spiegel
Worth an estimated $2.1 billion
He’s an American internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of the mobile application Snapchat. He became a billionaire by the fall of his teenage.
And there are many more with feathers on their cap.
Evidently, starting early isn’t just a day’s stuff. It’s a process! If you’ve an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. It’s a great feeling to see your name in the list, in the colorful magazines of Millennial Entrepreneurs that would inspire millions and boost the entrepreneurial bug within you. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve to quit your job and jump into your idea from day one. Well, undoubtedly that’s an unmatchable commitment. But if that’s not feasible, there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement. Because ten years down the line, you would regret more for the things you wanted to do but didn’t than for the ones you did.
