I am an entrepreneur and have been so for the last 10 years. With my trusted partner, we’ve been through several business models, traveled many paths and experienced various levels of success and failure. Both of us worked in the “real world” for a very short time - roughly two years - and our business models have never really been related to our professional “work experience.” Instead, we have ideas for companies, services and web sites and we proceed to market them and see what happens. We’ve been pretty successful with that approach, so I would suggest that it is one way to go if you find that you enjoy the process of building your ideas into realities many times over - and you have no fear of risk.

I’ve been reading more about Gen Y recently and how there is a prevailing and perhaps stronger-than-ever urge among that group to work independently. Perhaps they don’t need to start their own companies, but they want to have control over their working lives and have a better work-life balance than previous generations. I can buy into that concept. I think human society should be slowly evolving out of the current work-to-consume model. It’s clearly the way things are, but it needs to change if humanity is going to move to the next level of awareness. But I think sometimes the Gen Y conversation loses sight of the importance of getting into the job market and getting your hands dirty a little bit. Even if the job or company is not appealing to you, there is great opportunity there. Perhaps even more so than searching diligently for the “perfect job”, especially if you are considering starting your own company at some point.

Great entrepreneurs often discover their successful business models after working in undesirable jobs. If you are working in a job where you and the people around you are miserable, there is obviously an opportunity there to improve that business model and make it more efficient and productive. There may be a better way to service the clients or to expand market reach - any number of possibilities. I think this is an often overlooked advantage of “paying your dues” during those first years after school. Those years are very rich with opportunities to identify the weaknesses in the companies and the processes that are driving industries. Once you have identified those weaknesses and developed better strategies, you have created a successful business model.

Tags: entrepreneurship, Generation Y, how to be an entrepreneur, how to start a company, ideas for companies, work life balance

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