Have a good sniff at the air u and let me know what you smell? Anything strike you. An entrepreneurial rennaissance maybe? Are people around you starting to use words like VC, Angels, Series A and Exiting? People around you chasing silly ideas? Last time I was in North America, every other magazine seemed to be hailing an age of startups and entrepreneurs and while I’ve hopped on that bandwagon about as hard as anyone, I’ve been scratching my head and wondering what’s driving all of this. It may seem obvious, but I have a few hypotheses. Let me know what you think.
1. THE FIRST WORLD WORKFORCE DEALING WITH ABANDONMENT ISSUES
A year and a half of being cast aside by companies looking to protect their bottom line is bound to leave the workforce in most first world countries feeling like the veteran foster kid nobody wanted to adopt on the verge of his 18th birthday. If there’s one conclusion I see people coming to over and over, it’s that they’re on their own when it comes to their careers whether they stay with the company or go solo. That means there are a lot more people looking to strike out and work on their own terms than ever before.
2. CLEVER PEOPLE NO LONGER DISTRACTED BY DAY JOBS
A day job can be a great source of stability, but it can also be a convenient and final excuse for not pursuing a project of your own. When the company you work for makes eliminating that distraction easy (i.e., sacking you in the middle of a recession with a jobless recovery to look forward to), the decision to strike out on your own terms becomes a lot easier. More unemployed people with good ideas means more ideas out happening in the world where they belong. Halelujah!
3. DEVELOPING WORLD COMES OUT OF THE RECESSION LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED
While the developed world media portrays the end of their civilizations (nice one guys), the developing world has come out of the recession feeling like the cheerleader in Heroes. The result is an optimism built around a belief that the US and Europe are “over” and that places like Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and even Africa/Middle East are where opportunity will live and happen from now on.
4. STABLE INDUSTRIES NO LONGER SO STABLE
People in industries like advertising and publishing are starting to believe that their industry may not be around much longer. And whether they’re right or wrong, the thought of reaching a “game over” screen midway through their working years has the more pessimistic among them looking for a solution. To some this is about job progression. To others this is about creating that next commercial space on their own. Both of these require the opportunistic mind of an entrepreneur and I’m excited to see more and more people I respect going for the latter option.
Just some hypotheses, but there’s definitely something in the air.
