Systematical Application of Entrepreneurship in the Adaptation Process of Youth Mindset

Lifestyle vs. System. Along with the development of the times, people, especially the young metropolis have a tendency to be a “mutant” in their environment. Why are they called mutant? Because in fact, problematics often occur in which every person who used to always comply with existing regulations, now tend to behave otherwise. Whether the changing times which have become the main cause or because of the insistence of technology that encourages people to think and act quickly, regardless to the meaning of regulation itself. Not least a fact that states about a committed person’s uprising against the rules, which basically had to be obeyed as it was. This actually refers not to the rules, but rather to the process on how an “insurgent” is addressing a system through another view of within him/her.

Nowadays, especially in business world, it actually becomes a stimulant for a person to be able to achieve success in business. Like an old management that says, “If you are such a student, you will have greater success in business if you learn to behave differently.” That is why some entrepreneurs tend to think and behave a little bit ridiculous but innovative and creative, in order to make a new era in their business development. Exactly in this case, a teenager will acts vitally in this kind of entrepreneurship, considering that the “youth-bulge” would be the most dangerous threat in labor markets now and then.

Responding to the statements that Mr. Putera Sampoerna had expressed before in one article on his blog entitled “Job Creation Through Entrepreneurial Development” as well as addressing the problematical development which metropolitan youth face today, I was honored to be able in participating and delivering aspirations and opinions related to how do I face this problem. As I said before that a teenager was the main actor of entrepreneurship program, it has a main point in develop the youth talents as a promising prospect to be able to face some concerned problems regarding to decrease the number of underemployment which has been the hottest topic in many developing countries. Moreover, in many developing countries the amount of teens are increasing dramatically and rapidly causing some bad effects to the less of labor markets which are able to receive them all. That is why this enterpreneurship process will affect the development in demographic changes as long as it applied wisely.

Basically, there are several reasons why do young people today are less able to analyze the benefits of entrepreneurship:

• They do not understand about the meaning of entrepreneurship itself
• They are too fixated on the existing system
• They think that it is hard to become an entrepreneur because it takes a lot of capital
• They do not know the advantages of being an entrepreneur
• They are not familiar with the entrepreneurial lifestyle

However, this problem can be overcome by introducing entrepreneurial principles to them. Actually, it is not difficult to introduce the entrepreneurship environment among young people. It can be started from how we introduce an intensive and condusive condition around them. This condition means an environment that leads them directly to the systematic application of entrepreneurial principles in their daily lives.

                Moreover, in order to introduce an entrepreneurial environment to young people, we can also do some approaches that will stimulate their interest to do some business-orientated activities which using their own money. These can be:

• Case Study Program. Let them know how intense is the competition among the work environment, as a result of less of jobs that have been existed. So they could be encouraged to learn new different things, which can help them to understand the importance of being an entrepreneur today. While letting them considering their options, we can also explain the characteristics of entrepreneurs to them, so they will be more understand about the basic concepts of entrepreneurship.
• Change the youths paradigm and mindset. Often, some teens think that being a government employee is more promising for their future rather than an entrepreneur, considering at a relatively high salary and job security in choosing a role in the business world. It is no longer justified in the world of entrepreneurship. Being an entrepreneur requires a change in our mindset, especially on how we address any prospect that we will face in the future. By introducing and adapting the mindset of an entrepreneur on today’s young generation, especially in terms of the implementation of creative thinking and innovative behavior, helps them to be able to distinguish between the benefits of being a government employee or an entrepreneur.
• Encourage youths to create some small home-based-businesses. By training young people to start and grow their business, we also teach them indirectly about how to manage their own money and assets. Also, this “learning by doing” method stimulates their behavior and makes them addicted to doing business and business again after getting their first earnings. I totally agree with Mr. Putera Sampoerna’s opinion which calls on the importance of government role in supporting the implementation of these home-based-business programs.
• Familiarizing young people to respond to live like the lifestyle of an entrepreneur has to do every day. This last approach is very useful in the personality development of the young generation, especially in managing their mindset, their lifestyle, as well as their attitudes to be aligned with those which has been applied by many successful entrepreneurs in this world.

To conclude, systematical application of entrepreneurship in the adaptation process of youth mindset becomes increasingly important in the business world, especially in addressing the development of the times and the current era of globalization. Therefore, the implementation of the principles of entrepreneurship on the youth lifestyle will be a measure of economic growth in developing countries.

Yosef Sabastian Setya Hadi

Sampoerna School of Business

Management 2011

yosef.hadi@student.ssb.ac.id