We don’t need to become entrepreneurs to be successful
I find it a little worrisome that my generation looks down on jobs —we assume that those who choose to work from 9 to 5 have sold out their dreams to work for someone else. But this generalization is hurtful. Is it such a worthless pursuit to work for someone else and to earn an honest living to support your family?
The majority of people who become entrepreneurs, do so without their choosing, but because they couldn’t find jobs. Let’s take an example of a typical businessman in Pakistan, who is not landed. Let’s call him Ahmed. Ahmed graduated from high school, speaks broken English, earned a diploma as a technician, and looked for a full-time job. But there were no jobs to be found. He decided to save up a bit of money from working odd jobs and opened his own repair store. The business seems fairly successful: there is always demand for his services, he is an affable young boy, and he also does it for cheap. If he’s a bit handier, he has a Facebook page. I have little doubt that he makes more money as an entrepreneur than he would as an employee.
But then, Ahmed never wanted to be an entrepreneur. He only opened his own business because he couldn’t find a job. As soon as the opportunity came along to stop being his own boss and go work for someone else, he jumped at it. And who can blame him? Because like most people, he wants a good life with the certainty that he’ll get paid. As an employee, he knows he is going to get paid next month and how much. With this certainty, he can start to invest and buy a home and assets for a better life. Sure, you might make more money as an entrepreneur, but it doesn’t seem to be this that humans want — it’s the security and certainty of a steady paycheck. It’s a rare person indeed who would give up all that security for the uncertainty of success in their own business.
Ahmed’s example demonstrates that risk is not a characteristic unique to entrepreneurs. Sometimes, people are forced to take risks, like in Ahmad’s case. Moreover, I do not believe that entrepreneurs are wired differently — I think most of us try to do the best, with the opportunities we get and the cards we are dealt with. For many, a job is an easier way to live a better life and to support their families. Those who opt for a life of an entrepreneur are the lucky few who have a parent, spouse or partner supporting them with a stable source of income, or they are trust fund kids with a ridiculous amount of savings.
The other thing to note is how we define entrepreneurship. When we hear the word “entrepreneur,” we tend to think of visionaries like Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. These men are a rare kind of entrepreneur: they became entrepreneurs when it wasn’t really sexy.
Nowadays, all of us want to join the entrepreneur bandwagon, in the hopes to lead the next social revolution. Moreover, many of us don’t see Ahmed as an entrepreneur — it’s the trendy entrepreneurs we’re after, who are defining social movements, not the nameless entrepreneurs impacting local communities. We don’t praise the businessmen running schools, solving food challenges, or the local mom-and-pop stores. We praise the entrepreneurs that get social media acclaim.
Perhaps, instead of shaming people who choose to follow a “traditional career path,” our generation must learn to appreciate the 20, 30 and 40 somethings who are clocking in hours and living responsible lives, and who are indirectly contributing to the success of businesses and the economies through their work. It is worth noting that poverty decreases with jobs. By shaming traditional jobs, we undermine the efforts of many people who are contributing to solving the problem of poverty.
A study was done on the most innovative and entrepreneurial countries and found Uganda to be #1 with Thailand as #2. Developed countries were not even close: the first rich country to appear on the list was Australia at #26, and the bottom-15 included many of the world’s biggest economies, including Germany, France, Japan, and Italy. It is interesting to note that a country’s GDP seems to increase as rates of entrepreneurship go down.
My mother is an entrepreneur — she’s opened her own school for subsidized education in a small town in Pakistan. She has no social media presence, and yet I see her touch the lives of so many people. She reminds me that entrepreneurship should be for the right reasons. She doesn’t call herself an entrepreneur — she just focuses on her work. She’s also from a generation where being an entrepreneur wasn’t the “sexy” career choice of the moment. For many years, it was being a doctor, lawyer, investment banker, or even real estate. Just like anything else, career choices are influenced by trends, current societal norms, economic status, cultural influences, and many other factors
Entrepreneurship can be great, but so can having a traditional job. And it’s ok to do both. But it’s time we appreciate both career paths, without typecasting people into one or the other. Stop chasing the dream of becoming an entrepreneur and start realizing that you can carve out your own path of success — employee or otherwise. This level of success should be measured by your own values, not against the number of shares or likes you get, or earning the coveted title of an entrepreneur.
