As a sophomore at a liberal arts college, with a prospective degree in International Relations, I assumed the that much of the business start up world belonged to either the computer science geeks or people with vocational professions, so naturally I didn’t show much interest in it as it never occurred to me as a career option. All I knew was that this phenomena of ‘Work hard, Play harder’ had been around for a while and somehow it had been associated with pop culture and super cool working spaces, fitted with expensive multimedia devices and quirky furniture.
It was only after I came back to Lahore, my hometown for the summer that I started observing the numerous startups that had opened all over the city. Some of my friends had even started working for a few and this made me even more intrigued as the concept of working way before you graduate college was something you didn’t hear very often in Pakistan. I wanted to know more and decided to work at a capacity building accelerator called Elevate the Youth (ETY). They had just been founded and were in the process of establishing their pilot internship program in Lahore. Their partners included renowned names such as Nestle and Berger as well as many successful startups from all across the country and so that settled any earlier doubts that I had, had about their credibility. However I was still not clear as to why we needed as entrepreneurship program in Pakistan, had I missed a whole chunk of Pakistan’s progress while I was away? Nevertheless as I talked to more people, I realized that unlike the world, the startup culture had just hit Pakistan and I had managed to somehow position myself right in the middle of this junction of old meets new.
When my core team and I interviewed people for our internship program, we found a general trend among most of our applicants, almost all of them found their dream job to be working for the top corporate or multinational companies in the country. None of them said that they aspired to take charge and bring in their ideas to the professional world through a position of leadership. Was this because of the general negative perception about startups being too liberal for third-world countries like Pakistan? And when I say liberal, I don’t mean it in terms of religion or culture but the general resistance to embracing change. Most people I knew still preferred to work a typical 9-5 job, make some money and go home. Why is it that they refused to come out of their comfort zones? Perhaps because we all worry about things such as, if venture capitalism is popular enough, it's not quite as well regulated in the country. Even still, this phenomenon is part of the global wave of shared office spaces, accelerators, incubator programs, and university labs that cultivate entrepreneurship and innovation in the hope of kick-starting their local tech ecosystems and becoming the region’s first Silicon Valley.
As I entangled myself further into this web, I began to come face to face with the benefits of entrepreneurship. For starters, you get to be the exclusionist of your own ideas. Start ups are a teamwork and instead of being the audience, all members of the company become participants in it’s success. There is no longer sharing of messages or orders, instead you become a part of an ongoing dialogue. This culture proves to be very inspiring, a person is no longer working for gaining influence, instead he or she is building relationships. Many might mourn over this as the loss of discipline in the workplace however others including view this as an opportunity to co-create and the chance to give rise to innovative ideas.
It is, however, true that we need to equip our youth with the right tools if they are to survive these massive changes. For those who adapt, stay and those who don’t, perish and this is where the significance of entrepreneurial training and mentorship comes in. The youth needs to work with people who have a passion for helping others achieve their life’s greatest work. These people know what it is like to start a project, pour your heart, soul and money into it, and see it develop into a well-oiled machine that is efficient, effective and, most importantly, profitable.
We need to take in account the constantly increasing numbers of students graduating from universities each year whereas the job market remains saturated already. There is an imminent need for us to create more employment. And through the rise of new businesses, there is also the great possibility for us to bring in more diversity into the workplace, when more ideas come together, there are more chances for things to work out. The decisions that the youth make today will affect the future of the world tomorrow. And if we want to improve we need to take advantage of the new discoveries we are making every day. Indeed to be evergreen, one must constantly evolve.
