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Shacky Timburwa
Many a time people question the age limit of youths but when it comes to business they never query the age.
The issue only arose when certain posts are given to a youth and then with unpronounced mind, some people tend to then ask why is that person on that position.
Well, simple terms define a youth as someone between childhood and adult age.
After school or graduation at universities or colleges, one can only become a worker.
Somehow, what people don’t know is that if you want to empower the youth give them entrepreneurship skills.
Education should be a bonus to those who are academically gifted.
As a young Zimbabwean, being listed on the Forbes Africa 30 under 30 made me realise my importance in the society hence to share also knowledge that I have acquired on my listed peers.
Africa is rich and talented, full of youths with innovative ideas henceforth, they should be given platform to express their entrepreneurship skills.
The port of call is to improve our communication skills first which are important for every success.
Besides that, you will learn how to organise your time, be creative, improve your self-discipline and confidence.
We have noticed that the importance of youth entrepreneurship is huge and sometimes, some leaders from teachers, professors, lecturers to even guardians do not know how to promote entrepreneurship among youths. What we also need to consider is that things have changed a lot in the last decades.
Gone are the days we used to be inspired by stories such as so and so started off his or her business selling sweets. Is it still the same now and can we still use the same modus operandi or we need to adapt to new trends?
Some teenagers have a different attitude and mindset hence you need to work on that and youth entrepreneurship becomes more and more popular on a daily basis.
The development of Internet Technology gives us many business opportunities.
It really doesn’t matter how old you are. Everyone has equal chances to achieve his business goals.
Because of that, it should not surprise us that youth entrepreneurship is now trending.
From my research, the reasons why youth entrepreneurship is important are;
Improvement of valuable Skills
Formal education doesn’t allow us to develop our skills and talents in the right way. We spend many years on improving skills that are not valuable for our success at all. After graduation, we can only become good workers.
Independence
Majority of people do not learn for the whole of their life to live independently. Their lives depend on their bosses, parents, jobs, the economic situation in the country, etc. More precisely, they do not have the opportunity to make some decisions on their own hand.
Youth entrepreneurship can change your life completely. Young adults will be able to make their own decisions, organise their own time, and be financially independent of their parents.
Taking money from your mother and father probably looks nicer. But, the sense of pride when you make your first dollar is something you will never forget.
Doing What You Love
Learning new things should be fun and interesting. However, you will hear many students complaining about how they hate school. We only learn things which our teachers tell us to learn. An average child does not have any interests in most of the lessons in school.
The importance of youth entrepreneurship becomes even bigger here! How many people do you know that love their job? Probably not a lot.
Doing things that we simply do not love always leads to dissatisfaction and demotivation.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are great examples of that.
Their life stories show us the true importance of youth entrepreneurship.
They did not want to limit their education only on college lessons. After some period of time, they left the college because they realised it doesn’t have a quality youth entrepreneurship program.
More precisely, they were not improving their entrepreneurial mindset at all.
You already know which achievements they have because of that decision. They finally had the opportunity to do what they love.
Getting out of your comfort zone
Majority of people stay in their comfort zone for the whole of their life. It is logical because they feel safe there. However, that doesn’t mean they are truly happy. Youngsters do not learn in school how important for their happiness and success is to take risks. Hard work is going to bring you good results always. Yet, if you are not ready to do things you are afraid of, it won’t mean anything to you.
Youth entrepreneurship makes you feel ready for something like that.
Self-awareness and self-confidence
Doing what you love and taking risks in order to achieve your goal will improve your personality and mentality. That’s why youth entrepreneurship is recommended for every teenager.
Not recognising our talents and abilities is a global problem. Many children around the world think they are useless.
You often hear them saying “I am an average human being”. Keep in mind that every individual in this world has at least one talent. So, if you are an “average person”, then you definitely are talented. When you achieve your first goal as a young entrepreneur, you will finally start to respect yourself and your skills.
You will have the opportunity to see that you are capable to achieve everything you imagine. When you are confident, taking risks won’t be a problem any more.
There are a lot of factors and I am sure next week, I focus on the factors and benefits of entrepreneurship.
Timburwa is a serial entrepreneur and recently was listed among Forbes Africa 30 under 30. He is the chief executive officer for Energy Plus and is a philanthropist.
Online Reporter