The information technology industry is not synonymous with entrepreneurship, although we mostly know about successful entrepreneurial stories from this sector. Revolutionary ideas also arise outside garages, without a single line of code. Some are created among haystacks, on meadows, and some at family lunches… Everyone can have ideas, but who is enterprising enough to try to implement them, and why is it extremely important for Serbia?
Be obedient, don’t wave, not everyone needs to know what you think, don’t stand out publicly so as not to offend anyone, segments of rhetoric from this area are well known. It is better to bow your head than to raise your voice, it could be said that it is also safer. Finding a secure job in a state-owned company or service is an ideal scenario for most. In such a picture of the world, where will we place the exceptional ones, with an entrepreneurial way of thinking? One possible answer would be: outside the comfort zone.
Entrepreneurial thinking is characterized by perseverance and persistence in achieving the set goals. In an effort to achieve his intentions, the entrepreneur encounters numerous obstacles and problems. The good news for all those who have decided on this path is that no obstacle is so high that it cannot be skipped, and that no problem is so complex that it cannot be solved. To approach the problem in multiple ways and from multiple angles, over and over again, the entrepreneur is armed with commitment. He simply does not give up, because he is aware that the helm is in his hands.
In Serbia, those who think entrepreneurially will encounter a dominant fatalistic interpretation of the world and opportunities. He will not have enough commitment to breathe, nor perseverance and persistence to convince his surroundings that he needs to deal with problems. In Serbia, problems are constant and you just have to accept them and live with them.
If we build armies of young people on the foundations of entrepreneurial logic, it will be possible to change these rigid attitudes.
You must have heard countless times that one learns from mistakes. In the entrepreneurial spirit, omissions represent opportunities for growth and development. More precisely, you don’t have to learn anything from them, except how to fall and avoid injuries to vital organs. There is also a famous metaphor that starting a startup company is jumping from a plane without a parachute and that a jumper-entrepreneur in a free fall constructs a parachute or a plane in order to either land more successfully or soar back into the sky.
Viewed from that perspective, formal education teaches us from an early age that mistakes mean bad grades, that is, they condition punishment. If we are taught that we should do control without error, do we anathematize the latter? From that perspective, the term “it’s my school” that we use when we want to emphasize that we have learned something, partially loses its meaning.
An entrepreneurial way of thinking also implies creativity when we talk about solving problems. The archenemy of creativity is the molding to which we are exposed through the ubiquitous imperatives that we should be obedient and not protest. The core of entrepreneurial thinking is rebellion, constant change and adaptation to new conditions.
Generations to come are living a change in a world that is connected like never before. There will be no imperatives for them today, because they cannot survive. The future favors an entrepreneurial mindset, and the sooner we hop on that train, the better places we will take.
We can discuss whether sailing in entrepreneurial waters is just a risk-taking or represents some kind of madness, but what is indisputable is the guiding idea. Having in mind that the entrepreneur is the one who keeps his hands on the helm, that gives him great freedom to choose his course, but it also brings him great responsibility.
In Serbia, freedom is an often misused term. Everyone understands it in their own way, and the authorities mostly keep it to themselves, without showing responsibility to the citizens. In an atmosphere where politics dominates, and social values kneel under the weight of corruption, the notion of freedom is distorted.
Digital natives, those who have been online since childhood, highly prioritize freedom. They are guided by slogans such as “if you are resting, you are already behind”, which clearly indicate their entrepreneurial approach.
However, entrepreneurs are not born, they are built, and their way of thinking can be taught. That is why it is very important that entrepreneurship be introduced in formal education, starting from the lowest grades of primary school. It’s one surefire way to keep up with the technological revolution of an economy that’s already there. I would go so far as to say that teaching this way of thinking is so important that it can be aligned side by side with language learning at an early age.
Let’s build future generations on entrepreneurial logic, which will allow them to challenge all deep-rooted dogmas of our society. Let us allow them to race and reach countries that have advanced in the context of the technological revolution. Let them teach us that what we lived as freedom was actually an illusion, and leave them room to build a new and better society, Talas reports.
