We Can’t All Be Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is great. It has opened doors for so many people. Lives have been changed, the economy is growing. In fact, every campus kid wants to be an entrepreneur.  Ask anyone about their dreams and they will point out that they will start one business or the other. Everyone wants to become self-employed.  It’s the reason why you’ll find social media businesses mostly selling clothes and other fashion accessories sprouting by the minute.  The current youth is all about “working hard and playing hard”. It’s a very good thing and I keep thinking, “Wow! The parents of this generation are a lucky lot.” Who wouldn’t want a 21-year old son that’s sustaining himself with money from his business, sometimes even lending some to his parents?

The only down side is that those who opt for the traditional “graduate, get a job, climb the corporate ladder, retire” kind of life are looked upon as lacking ambition and “failures”. I remember a while back when  a friend asked what my plans were after graduation ; the look on their face when I told them I would look for a nice job and work  my way up would have made one think I’d just confessed to being a serial killer. You see, there’s so much hype going on about entrepreneurship and people seeking self-employment that no one is giving much thought to the consequences.

If we all become entrepreneurs, who’ll work for the other? Every successful organization owes its properity to dedicated and hardworking managers and employees. Entrepreneurs don’t necessarily  make the best managers; they are driven by passion and dreams, and at times, this might be a recipe for disaster. There needs to be that person with skills to run the show, to draw plans to make sure that everything is delivered on time.  There needs to be a bunch of people to actualize the visions of the entrepreneur.  It doesn’t mean that these people lack dreams, their goals in life are just different.

There are people who work in one organization their whole life and are perfectly happy. Wanting to become an employee rather than an employer is not necessarily a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that you’re not a risk taker either (well , in some instances maybe) . It simply means you decided to go against the general crowd mentality, you chose to define your own happiness. And isn’t that what matters at the end of the day? No one should castigate  you for choosing to be different. There’s no shame in being normal and wanting the ordinary.

It’s not all entrepreneurs who end up raking millions, neither are all employees successful. It’s a matter of perspective. The goals you have for your life are meant to guide you. Don’t be trapped in the middle-class definition of success.  So whether you want to go the employment route or the entrepreneurship path, bottom line is that we are all dream chasers.