Want to Help the Next Generation Succeed? Get Out of Their Way
It’s really that simple.
I’m fresh off of a short stay in Montreal. It was cool because this trip was the first time I stayed in an Air BnB. I have to say it was quite the experience. The host was amazing and now I’m on the BnB bandwagon.
Moving across Montreal, my main mode of transport was an Uber. So think about this: In my short time in Montreal, I experienced two of the most disruptive businesses of this decade. That’s something anyone can get excited about. It’s successes like these that motivates people to become entrepreneurs.
Let’s take a step back, though. Taking a look at our current culture, are we properly preparing this generation to be entrepreneurs? I know we are in the freelance/entrepreneur era where no one wants to work for anyone but themselves. I’m asking, though, despite the enthusiasm for independent work, are people today actually well prepared?
A broad question, I know. I think one way to measure preparation in running a business is assessing how that individual deals with failure. Unfortunately, this generation doesn’t seem to handle failure very well.
I’m talking from experience here. I’ve heard many of my hires come to me and say verbatim “I can’t handle the rejection.” Now I work in an industry where we deal with three of the most sensitive aspects of a person’s life — time, money, and health — so the pressure is palpable. But for me, this is a microcosm of a larger problem.
I recently learned a new term; snowplough parents. Now most of us have heard of helicopter parents. Snowplough parents are a bit different but equally as misguided. They are the ones accused of clearing the road for their children so their paths are uninhibited.
This is dangerous. Not allowing children to fail, or to hear “no”, not only doesn’t prepare them to be entrepreneurs, it doesn’t prepare them for life. This notion becomes prominent again in the fact that we celebrate losing. Our kids are given prizes for participation and trophies for just taking part in a race or event despite not placing.
That’s all good when you’re a kid, but what happens when you’re ready to run your own business? What happens when you want to become a disruptor like Air BnB founder Brian Chesky or Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick and the world screams NO as loudly as it can?
How would a daughter or son of a snowplough parent deal with the hundreds of lawsuits faced by these companies? How would they deal with the criticism and attempted debauchery from competitors? Would they even get to the point of success if they haven’t been socialized to accept failure as part of learning?
I think about my own son. My wife and I tell him all the time not to jump off the bed. On this one occasion, we see him setting up to launch and instead of stopping him, we give each other a glance and just shrug our shoulders. Wouldn’t you know it, London leaps off the bed and falls head first into the floor.
His ego was probably bruised more than anything, but the lesson was learned. When you jump, there’s not always going to be someone there to catch you. When you take leaps of faith, you might just fall flat on your face. But you get up, have a good cry, and you figure out a better way to get where you want to go.
I’m not exactly an entrepreneur myself. I’m what you call an intrapreneur. I work for a company but operate with ample freedom as far as staffing and budgeting that is similar to that of a traditional entrepreneur.
That being said, I think we really need to be more transparent about what it’s going to take to run a successful business. More than just education, beyond any of those day long entrepreneurship seminars, it’s important we really prepare the next generation of disruptors and innovators to be just that.
That’s going to take a heavy dose of failing, of understanding how to fail, and how to find the positive in the process to carry over to the next steps. With the reasonable amount of success that I’ve had in my own career, those of you behind the scenes know it’s always a nail biter. Things just don’t always go my way. But I would be nothing if I didn’t learn early on in my development as a leader that to get what I want, I’d have to suck up a few nose dives.
If you take anything from this piece, let it be this. If we want the next generation to be successful, let’s just get out of their way and let them do their thing. We’re here for advice, encouragement, and to offer some form of mentorship when requested. Other than that, move over and let these overly ambitious youngsters fall flat a few times. They’ll be much better for it in the long run, and so will the companies they build.
Follow me on Medium Nsuani Baffoe
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