Gen X vs. Gen Y Entrepreneurs Face-Off, Part II
In a previous post, I attempted to wage a battle between Gen X and Gen Y entrepreneurs, a largely unfounded one it turns out. What I uncovered, though, is that my question had less to do with age and the ambiguous borders of Gen X and Gen Y, but more to do with the value of traditional work experience against new entrepreneurism. It’s essentially a question about the value of experience, which interestingly is at the center of the current presidential primaries, and the subject of March 10th’s Time magazine cover story. So what is the value of experience?
Despite my alt-outlook on most things, I have a soft spot for the old school, and nowhere else as much as when it comes to education. For most of elementary school, I went to Catholic school. The nuns drilled us on our times tables and sentence diagrams, and I attribute any subsequent academic success to that experience. As an educator, I’m into experiential and project-based learning, but think it has little value if the students don’t have the basics mastered. As a teacher in a great inner-city high school, I saw otherwise bright, creative, and insightful students fall short of expectation consistently because they hadn’t mastered basic grammar and vocab. Why is this important? Well, there is a business equivalent to paying your dues and learning the basics. And while I rejected the traditional path of climbing the corporate ladder, I learned from the work experience of doing menial labor, of trying to fit in, of following orders. Even if what I learned is that I hate it.
But does this learning put me at an advantage or disadvantage as my own boss? How do I size up against a teenager with a great idea, energy, and ingenuity? From my perspective, the pros of starting a business, sans experience:
- Thinking out of the box. Wait, it’s more than outside the box. It’s what happens when there is no box. And it’s pretty cool.
- Risk-taking. The younger and less experienced tend to be less risk-averse, which can be an asset in the startup environment.
- Ego. Confidence can take you a lot of places, and youngsters who haven’t experienced rejection and humiliation in the workplace have plenty.
- Energy. Imagine what you could get done if you could still pull all-nighters fueled by hope and Red Bull.
The pros of starting a business after putting in some time in the corporate world:
- Communication skills. Working with people beyond the ones that live in your dorm often makes you practice communicating effectively.
- Knowing how to play the game. Like it or not, there are definitely rules and etiquette in the business world, and knowing them can improve relationships with other businesses.
- Humility. Nothing like sending out dozens of resumes only to be rejected or being ignored in meetings to make you realize no one thinks you are as smart as you do. And that’s not a bad thing.
My thoughts clearly aren’t very decisive; neither was the expert opinion in the Time article. Experience was not a strong indicator of future achievement and success. In the political realm, there are too many new variables for experience to mean much. The same could be true in the startup environment. There are models of success, but no gaurantee that they can be replicated. The author of the article, Von Drehle, says, “To a keen student of human nature, all life offers lessons in how to lead, inspire, and endure.” Indeed, it is all of our experiences, and our ability to learn from them, that can be lessons in how to start a business.
Tags: gen x entrepreneurs, gen y entrepreneurs, work experience, Young Entrepreneurs