Entrepreneur: a Touch of Gray
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Media has long focused on youth in all its myriad forms.
Another leading focus is that small segment of any group that acts out, whether positively, think entrepreneurs, or negatively, think criminals.
Media melded these two consuming subjects together in its stories on young entrepreneurs.
If you didn’t know better you might end up believing that most startups were hatched by a kid working out of her dorm room or a guy in his parents’ basement when the reality is that the great majority of entrepreneurs have that touch of gray.
Research by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) shows that entrepreneurs over the age of 35 accounted for 80 percent of “total entrepreneurial activity” in 2009…
80-20. That’s a whopping difference.
Not counting recession-driven entrepreneurialism here is an over-simplified answer to the complex question of why. Obviously both statements are generalizations—there are plenty of people in both groups that don’t fit the mold.
Young people are a tightly conforming group, tending to go where the majority goes and do as they do, wanting to “fit in” and needing approval.
That seems to change after a decade or more in the trenches, with a wealth experience, a greater understanding of themselves as individuals and less need of external approval.
“I think I’ve grown more fearless as I’ve gotten older. I just feel like, what is there to lose? Do you know what I mean? You take a chance—the world still turns. Taking chances and doing things that scare you only make you stronger.” — Alan Cumming
Cumming’s words really resonate in the entrepreneurial world.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoliv/4644708452/
Life is compost.
