Note to Employers of the Future — if you are reading this several months or years after it was originally published, along with my cover letter asking for a job, chances are that I have failed at my entrepreneurial ventures and run out of cash. However, I would invite you to consider this post in a different light. I have learned more in the last six months of entrepreneurial endeavours than I have in six years of formal education. Despite it coming to an end, I wouldn’t refer to it as a failure, rather, as my postgraduate studies and unique work experience. Rest assured that if I am applying for a job in your company, it is because I am genuinely interested in the position, and your corporate values align with my own.
‘Are you trying to tell me that after seven years, and the fortune spent on your education, you are not going to be a lawyer?’ asked my mother, almost in tears.
The simple answer — Yes — would have made my mum cry and simultaneously fly all the way from South America to beat me up. So I started thinking hard on what it was exactly that was so obvious to me about my decision to pursue an entrepreneurial path rather than a legal career.
I started by explaining what an entrepreneur is, taking into account that my mother is from a completely different generation. Baby boomers, born in the aftermath of World War II, value stability above anything else, being the most likely to work the same job for thirty years, buying the family home being their first priority and working for a big reputable firm an honour. Millenials are risk takers. We are living in an era of unprecedented stability, with technological advances very few would’ve been able to predict more than ten years ago.
Stability, as I mentioned before, can be a very deceiving term. Yes, by some standards the risk of a nuclear attack and imminent world destruction are lower now than before, but that doesn’t mean that societies are perfect. This stability has enabled us to focus our resources into issues that have largely being ignored in the past. We are a generation inheriting a vast range of challenges, but we are embracing them. We are the most educated generation in history, enjoying technology that is lowering barriers of access to professional development opportunity by the minute. For us, working for a large company can actually mean holding us back from reaching our full potential. From building the company firm that future generations will be proud of and want to work for. A company suited to modern times, a company with a purpose.
Simply put, freelancers, consultants and lawyers get paid for the work they do. If they stop working, they are not getting paid. Their main product is their knowledge, which can have a pretty hefty price tag. However, an entrepreneur is someone who builds something bigger than himself. An entrepreneur would take the knowledge and apply it to a business model in a way that can be scaled, meaning that the organisation can still run and grow even if the founder goes away. … I would not be heading in the same direction as I am now without my undergraduate studies in Arts/Law, but instead of applying that knowledge and skills in a conventional way, I am thinking outside the box and applying that knowledge to foster innovation.
The innovation process is so simple, it is addictive. List every single step it takes to do something, from the trigger mechanism that prompts you to take action up until the task is completed. Then look at ways in which technology can be used to either remove steps or add value to them.
Once this process settles in your mind, everywhere you look is full of possibilities. There is so much value to be created, so positive an impact to be made, that focusing my attention on anything else has been impossible.
Finally, after many years of overwhelming energy and creativity that have led people to think that I am a dreamer, and a slightly insane one, I have found an avenue to channel it in a productive way. Now, I call myself an entrepreneur.
‘Porque no los dos?’ — why not both is something mum has asked many times, trying to persuade me that being a full time lawyer and running some of my projects on the side as a hobby is a better (she means safer) option. However, the long hours as a lawyer, and the limited time allocation associated with hobbies, are not compatible with the aim of building something bigger than yourself. At this point, I am making the call that my projects go well beyond a hobby that makes me happy on the weekends. These projects I consider to be big and serious enough that it is worth dedicating full time to them.
I feel that if I become a lawyer — even a great one — I would still be just another lawyer. Just another small piece in a big machine, doing whatever task is needed to make the machine run, easily replaceable by another lawyer. However, I feel that if I pursue my unique vision and ideas, I can create something great that might have otherwise not existed.
Universities are doing a great job at mass producing these pieces to feed a machine that no longer needs them, but they are not doing enough to promote innovation. That is why I feel the need to make an official announcement, that is why I am starting to blog more, to share my experiences and lessons learned, connect with others doing the same and hopefully inspire others to innovate in their fields.
There is no better time to be an aspiring entrepreneur. The barriers of entry into most industries have lowered significantly, if not disappeared altogether, due to rapid technological advance. Right now, all the resources and information you need to get started are freely available online. There are multiple incubators and accelerators to help you develop your ideas and receive initial funding and angel investors and venture capitals are increasingly common and more accessible.