A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

For many founders speed and as-instant-as-possible gratification are their watchwords.

They aim to be a rocket and when it doesn’t happen quickly they are on to the next idea.

Now look at the father and two sons who founded and built Qualtrics.

Two years ago Qualtrics had bootstrapped its way to $50 million in revenue, 200 employees, 3,800 customers and a $500 million acquisition offer.

CEO Ryan Smith is all of 33, which means he was just 23 when the company started just after the dot com crash (dad created the product and his older brother powers the tech.)

He turned the buyout down and took investment instead.

Two years later they have over $100 million in sales, 550 employees, 6,000 customers, a billion dollar valuation and $150 million in a series B round.

It’s said the best time to start a company is during tough times when money is tight.

Qualtrics may not have been built fast, but it was certainly built to last.

Image credit: HikingArtist

I’ve focused a lot over the last six months on the problems in education and attitudes of the workforce-to-be and it’s been a pretty dismal picture. Obviously, there are plenty of exceptions, but that, too, is problematic.

It’s not just that entrepreneurship attracts the best and brightest, is also attracts a significant percentage of high-initiative students and it’s those with initiative who drive innovation wherever they’re at.

And there lies the problem.

Not because these kids want to solve problems, start businesses and attack the world’s social ills—that’s great. But the MAP that drives these kids is the same MAP that is so desperately needed by today’s corporations.

“”They’re [the Net generation] great collaborators, with friends, online, at work,” Mr. [Don] Tapscott wrote. “They thrive on speed. They love to innovate.” … A report issued last year by the Kauffman Foundation, which finances programs to promote innovation on campuses, noted that more than 5,000 entrepreneurship programs are offered on two- and four-year campuses — up from just 250 courses in 1985…Since 2003, the Kauffman Foundation has given nearly $50 million to 19 colleges and universities to build campus programs.”

We live in a world of impatience; Boomers, contrary to some perceptions, were and are impatient; Gen X is still more impatient and it’s increased by an order of magnitude in Gen Y—and it will continue to increase the faster the world moves and changes.

And, to paraphrase, the world, it is a changin’.

The youngest generation is the most impatient, and that impatience is traveling up.

Yet, it is those with initiative, not just impatience; those with a desire to accomplish, not a sense of entitlement, that companies need to attract if they want to compete and thrive in the new world.

These are the people who can fuel innovation and corporate America’s ability to succeed.

These are the people you have to hire and manage.

Are you ready?

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: flickr (Click the picture if you’re having trouble reading it.)