The New World Order: Entrepreneurial Mindset

The jobs that existed yesterday do not exist today. The jobs that exist today will not exist tomorrow.

Where does this leave us? How can we; the youth of the largest-youngest country in the world ensure our relevance? Ask yourself: Is your college degree really preparing you for tomorrow?

According to Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum and author of The Fourth Industrial Revolution, we are living in a new world. A world pervaded by VR, AI, IoT and robotics. For all college students and concerned parents out there, this spells a chilling reality: the skills you thought made you valuable are now redundant. Technology can get the job done quicker, better and cheaper.

Does this mean we are all doomed? Is tomorrow’s world filled with automated labor and unemployed college grads?

Before you lose hope, consider this: There are still skills out there that will ALWAYS have value. Skills that will give you a competitive edge. Skills that will lend you evergreen market desirability. Creativity, collaboration, critical-thinking and communication are just some of the skills that cannot be automated. But how to reach this promised land of job security? Can these qualitative skills even be taught?

I never took a class on creativity. In fact, I have no musical inclinations whatsoever. I can barely draw a tree and I have never been a skilled painter. One can safely say that I am no artist. Yet, when the time came to recruit 40 student tour guides for my organization, I created the most beautiful flyer. I found a way to be good at it because I had to! I rose to the challenge, not because I was naturally gifted but because I needed to get the job done.

This gritty mindset that refuses to give up is precisely why I consider myself an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is not a career or a profession; it’s a thought process. It’s facing challenges with enthusiasm and being even more enthusiastic in the face of failure. Entrepreneurs add value to any work environment because they bring with them a mindset that innovates to solve problems. Regardless of the job market, there will always be a demand for individuals who add value to a work environment.

Now the question remains; how can you build an entrepreneurial mindset? The answer to this is definitely not in your textbooks or classrooms. Entrepreneurs learn by DOing. Ask yourself this, what are you DOing today to ensure your relevance in the new world of tomorrow?