The millennial generation often gets a bad rep. We are shamed as being lazy yet demanding, and impatient yet unwilling to work hard. But as the first generation to have grown up during the rapidly changing digital landscape, we also have something else that greatly sets us apart from our parents and grandparents. Millennials are entrepreneurial in ways that generations before ours never were, mostly because the Internet and the rise of social media has provided access to a multitude of information that previously had never been accessible.
From tech kids turned moguls to fashion bloggers turned tastemakers, the entrepreneurial spirit has found its way into all kinds of industries that were previously elusive or difficult to break into, thanks to sheer access to things our parents could have never dreamed of.
Rather than climb the corporate ladder, it’s seen as not only more desirable, but also more revered to be self-employed these days. Why lend your knowledge to the corporate machine and let someone else take credit for it when you have the ability to go out and find success on your own? Traditional career choices that followed a relatively pre-determined path were previously seen as the most desirable (doctor, lawyer, et cetera). Now they aren't necessarily considered the only ways to be successful. The competition no longer seems to be for the corner office or the job with the best perks, but to be at the head of the next best start-up company.
Those who came of age right along with the technology that currently rules our world often feel that they are the ones capable of using it best, and they often do. These days, being an entrepreneur, especially in regards to technology, puts you in the same category as some of the wealthiest and most successful people of this generation, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and the world's youngest female billionaire, Elizabeth Holmes.
Take Holmes, the Stanford dropout who chose to to pursue her idea of using a finger prick to conduct lab tests for a fraction of what they would usually cost in a lab. At just 31, she's already a billionaire whose success will have numerous implications for the future of healthcare and its costs.
Success stories like this, especially because we now see them online without even trying to, are driving career decisions in a new direction.The common thread in these stories is undeniably the use of innovative use of tech. The entrepreneurial pursuit is no longer considered a cop-out from getting a "real job" thanks to the plethora of success stories available to us. While it may very well be less trendy to sit in a cubicle in a very traditional office setting, also living the entrepreneurial dream isn't realistic for everyone either. The chances of finding the same success as the founders of Snapchat or Instagram becomes more and more slim as even more people are yearning to try their hand out at entrepreneurship. While the reality of this pursuit may be different than the immense success Zuckerberg or Holmes has found, it doesn't seem to be discouraging for wanna-be tech moguls. Some of the statistics about the desire of the millennial workforce to branch out on their own are still surprising. According to a recent survey from Agnus Reid, 78 percent of millennials are found the prospect of "charting their own course appealing" while around two-thirds would like to quit their jobs in coming years to try their hand at entrepreneurship.
So what does this mean for corporate landscape in the next few decades? It’s unclear whether the actual level of job autonomy that millennials clearly desire is sustainable, but for now, they’re going to keep trying to make it happen.
