Being 21 is fabulous, but at the moment it must also be very scary. Imagine: you’ve just left college with a degree, but decent jobs are impossible to find – what the heck can you do for work, and indeed with your life? Well, there is always the option of starting a business...
Being an entrepreneur is not a career. It is more like a calling. There are no predictable structures to the vocation, as there are in professions such as medicine, accountancy, law or teaching. Qualifications, job titles and one’s position in the hierarchy are completely irrelevant. Anyway, some might argue that these are mostly paraphernalia designed to bestow status, rather than essential ingredients needed to do something well. By being your own boss, you make up your own journey as you travel – rather than undergoing formal training, you learn skills by practising them, from sales to accounts. The key is action: entrepreneurs are doers, not theorists.
Going it alone is not the easy path. There is no guarantee that you will earn even a basic wage. But financial objectives are unlikely to be your priority, for as Aristotle said: “Youth loves honour and victory more than money.” All my observations have been that few real winners in business are exclusively motivated by wealth – they are more interested in proving a point, making their mark and creating something worthwhile. There is no security – but job security is a myth these days anyway, be it working for government or the corporate sector.