If you are young and ambitious, it’s the best of times and the worst of times to be an entrepreneur. It’s great because the idea of being an entrepreneur has never been more alluring—and accepted. Taking control of your financial destiny by becoming an entrepreneur is an attractive prospect for young people.
Entrepreneurs are the most in-demand guests on podcasts, dispensing their wisdom, if they are not hosting them themselves. There’s no shortage of influencer role models. No wonder so many aspire to it.
But it’s also a particular struggle for Gen Z because they are saddled with an acute anxiety about failure. This can be directly traced to the fact that, according to many experts, this generation was the first to go through adolescence while exposed to social media on their smartphones. (Just ask Meta if this is an issue, having agreed to a payout of up to $17 billion to states who alleged its platforms harmed children). Why is this a problem for the entrepreneurial culture?
Would-be entrepreneurs need to be very mentally robust when it comes to dealing with failure, which is 90 percent of the business journey, even for a founder who is ultimately successful. The dream being sold to Gen Z online can be completely at odds with the reality of achieving it. It’s never been easier to register a company, set up a retail system through services like Shopify or sort payment through tools like PayPal, Stripe or Square.
You can easily experiment with viral marketing through platforms like Instagram and TikTok to find new customers, filming adverts on your phones, or building online flyers with Canva or Picsart. AI is now accelerating this trend further, making it easier to create apps without any coding talent. It can also act as an adviser, helping you to navigate complex issues like health and safety regulations and compliance.
Like I say, it’s the best of times. There are thousands of entrepreneurs on social media happily shouting: "Look at me, I’ve done it, be like me and you can do it too." Indeed, being a creator on social media is one of the most popular ways to slip into entrepreneurship, building a following through your personal passion to create a customer base. The process feels natural to many who have watched influencers since early childhood.
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