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(Ugly) truth about entrepreneurship
Coupled with Gen Z’s exposure to the “instant” celebrities and influencers on social media, youngsters now all want a fast and easy acceleration to become the rich and the famous.
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As students increasingly pursue entrepreneurship, more universities are creating accelerator and incubator programs to support them. (Shutterstock/Yulia Grigoryeva)
T
he recent appointments of young and highly successful individuals in senior positions within the government have created a glorified image of entrepreneurship, as these individuals are mostly young and highly successful chief executive officers of their start-ups and companies, a leader of change movement and an initiator of social initiatives.
It has created an atmosphere that all Indonesian youth should aspire to be like them. Some might argue that we need more entrepreneurs and innovators in the country, hence a “let’s teach youngsters entrepreneurship and introduce them to the creative economy” type of education mind-set is taking over the education policymakers and decision-makers around the country.
One key way that educational institutions seem to be responding to this is by teaching “entrepreneurship” to young students so they can also be successful just like the ones sitting in the government. Coupled with Gen Z’s exposure to the “instant” celebrities and influencers on social media, youngsters now all want a fast and easy acceleration to become the rich and the famous.
Entrepreneurship has somehow become the “easy” option to fast-track their way to success, or so they thought. Many are offering “instant” educational programs, both informally through seminars and workshops or formally through university degrees with the promise of making them entrepreneurs.
What educators often miss is that there is no research evidence that suggests the possibility of “teaching” someone to become an entrepreneur. You cannot call a subject “entrepreneurship”, and expect that after taking a few classes studying and reading about it, someone will be magically ready to become an entrepreneur.
In a recent research study at a private university in Jakarta, entrepreneurship was made a compulsory subject for all undergraduate students with the mission to “create entrepreneurs”.
Well, the outcome of the program on paper is promising — more than 60 percent of students aspire to become entrepreneurs after taking the entrepreneurship class. However, there are some risks that are often overlooked within those high aspirations.
