What does it take to become a Latin American Mark Zuckerberg, or even just someone who makes a living running a business from their living room?
The motivation to become an entrepreneur is not always money. Whether through programs designed to attract entrepreneurs – like Start-Up Chile in what is called Chilicón Valley-, or via training to develop a business model, or even some simple but timely advice, any incentive serves to transform great ideas into lucrative businesses.
Young people choose to become entrepreneurs for various reasons. According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitornearly two in three Latin American entrepreneurs are motivated by opportunity rather than necessity.
The Latin America and Caribbean region has become a breeding ground for new youth-led businesses. Today it is the second most entrepreneurial region in the world.
Four out of ten young Latin Americans say they want to become an entrepreneur, but not everyone takes this first step. We asked those who did why they decided to start their own business:
“Search for jobs” versus “create jobs”
Unlike other generations, today’s young people wait less to be hired by a company to start their career.
For the Argentinian Carlos Balestra, young entrepreneur and co-owner of Tensión Creativa y Cavokwhich manufactures extreme sports equipment, the path has not been easy.
Today, the company exports kites and longboards to several countries in Latin America and Europe, as well as the United States. To reach international markets, Balestra and its partner had help: they employ 10 people in their factory. Balestra says that “one of the main reasons I do what I do is because we give people jobs.”
“The old model of attracting a factory that can employ many people can no longer be the only strategy. We need to find other formal ways to create jobs,” says Cristian Quijada Torres, private sector specialist at the World Bank. He believes that promoting entrepreneurship among young people can also be part of a formal job creation strategy in the region.
It is not just about contributing to the development of a country through job creation. “When we talk about technological entrepreneurship, it is also a way of supporting the diversification of economies, especially our economies, which are highly concentrated in natural resources,” explains Quijada Torres.
Marc Segura, from Mexico Play business, a collective investment platform for start-ups, says: “We realized that companies like Google and Apple represent 27% of US GDP. They succeeded because they are innovative companies that create industries and change the world. We are therefore banking on this investment ticket. In a few years, we will have new generation companies that will help the country grow.
“Our goal is to transform the technology sector into an opportunity for young women in Peru and the rest of Latin America,” says Mariana Costa Checa, founder of Laboratoriesa social enterprise that trains women to become web designers and connects them with companies that need their talent.
According to Quijada Torres, “young entrepreneurs create their own businesses and at the same time contribute to the economy and society with the goods and services they provide.” There are real opportunities to create new products and markets, in addition to developing innovative solutions to the main social problems of our countries.
Accept failure
Young people and experts agree that the path to entrepreneurship is strewn with pitfalls and that Latin America faces a major cultural obstacle: risk aversion.
“We must overcome the stigma of failure. This should not be seen as an end but rather as an additional step in the learning process,” says Quijada Torres.
“We made a lot of mistakes along the way,” says Costa Checa, whose Laboratoria has already placed 60 percent of its trained web designers in the job market. “Thinking that things were going to be easier than they ended up being or thinking that we were going to make changes in a very short period of time” are two examples of the miscalculations Checa and his team made along the way. of road.
“At the beginning it was very difficult,” says Balestra, referring to his first experiences as an entrepreneur. He recognizes the mistakes they made every day. “You’re constantly making decisions, so sometimes it’s impossible not to make a mistake. »
“In the United States, it’s different. There you are expected to fail several times. This is because you learn from these failures so that you can improve your business model,” explains Quijada Torres.
For the expert, it is essential to change mentalities in the region from a very young age. Children and young people must be taught not to fear failure. This idea should also be promoted in wider society.
“This aversion to failure is not irrational. This is due to the fact that it is very difficult to go bankrupt and close a business in the region,” explains the specialist. It highlights the need for cultural changes and regulations to facilitate business creation and restructuring.
“My son the entrepreneur”
Another cultural barrier is entrepreneurship as a career choice.
Traditionally, young people turned to professional careers in medicine or law. “Being an entrepreneur has never been looked upon favorably. It was likened to a drug dealer. It wasn’t one of the most respected careers,” says Quijada Torres. He believes that entrepreneurship should be considered as important a career as any other, and perhaps even more valuable for the development of a country.
“We have to believe in ourselves. It doesn’t matter if we are in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America. We have the same programming capacity, the same resources to be able to create huge companies that transform the world,” says Segura, of Playbusiness. “Success should be about what we can create and do,” he says. Playbusiness’ first success was the company itself, which managed to raise over US$100,000 in seed funding from private investors.
Young entrepreneurs will be at the center of discussions at the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Lima, Peru. On October 8, a panel comprising world leaders, CEOs and young entrepreneurs will discuss the role of entrepreneurship and youth in the development of countries. You can follow the event online and ask your questions about it page.
