The entrepreneurial nature of those under 25 is not just part of the American culture. From Business Week:
Economic growth in Europe is faster than in the U.S. Reform-minded governments are chopping away the red tape that stifles small business. The Internet is knocking down barriers faster than a thousand ponderous directives from Brussels. And mobile young people, nursed on wireless phones and the Web, are fanning out across the continent in search of new business opportunities.Add it all up, and entrepreneurialism is alive in the Old World.
Just as we have seen in the US ove the past ten to twenty years, entrepreneurship is no longer being viewed as a personality type, but rather has a legitimate career path to many young Europeans.
One startling bit of evidence: A recent study completed for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a program of Babson College and the London Business School, found that 64% of 18- to 24-year-olds in Britain were actively considering entrepreneurship as a career choice--the highest percentage ever measured."Entrepreneurship is becoming a credible career path," says Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO of Britain's National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts, the country's largest provider of early-stage startup funding. "It's no longer seen solely as the realm of people with a particular flair."
There is a stronger focus on entrepreneurship in many European universities. Whether this is spurring young people on or just meeting market demand is not clear. But it will help improve their success rates and will certainly reinforce the trend toward more young people pursing entrepreneurial career paths.
Let's hope Europeans keep on knocking down the barriers to business start-up, as they still have a long way to go. It is a shame that the US seems to be moving more in the opposite direction, adding more governmental controls over the entrepreneurial economy.
(Thanks to Ben Cunningham for passing this along).
