May 18

May 18 Your Prejudice Is Failing Us

(Photo: Pablo Delcan)

Potential has always been a key determinant of business success. Potential of the business entity to stay relevant, potential of the impact the products and services will have, and perhaps most importantly, potential of business owners to guide their businesses through turbid waters. In the incredibly fast-paced world we live in today it has never been easier to start a venture; knowledge is widespread and more accessible than ever before. As such, potential is everywhere, and not just buried in arcane places only accessible by gatekeepers, who were, in the past, the older, more experienced bunch.

Today, the dispersion of information, learning, and experience ensures that any person, from any age demographic, can access the tools required to run a successful business, or at least start one. Considering this, it is then counterintuitive (and unfortunate) to discredit young people based on their age and perceived lack of experience. This such ageism, along with the myriad of preconceptions and prejudices they come with, are rampant in many countries, especially in African countries. These prejudices harm the psyche of young, talented entrepreneurs and hold them back from engaging their full potential.

“[prejudice] is an opinion formed in the absence of evidence”

— Michael Crichton

The popular adage describing prejudice as “an opinion formed in the absence of evidence” could not have been more apt. The very nature of prejudice allows for inherent biases to play a role in decision making. This non-empirical method of placing people and things into convenient, albeit erroneous, silos forms the basis of problematic stereotyping. Unfortunately, young people who have ambitions of starting and running businesses are faced with a wave of such prejudices from the older generations. As the de facto gatekeepers - as unfortunate as that may be at times - their disinclination to listen to and assist the younger generation in business ventures directly affects the outcome of these businesses, if they even take off at all. Some of these prejudices are:

Young people, due to their age, are inexperienced and thus lack the requisite skills to run a business

Business ventures are a distraction from academic work
Youth-led ventures are a waste of funding

Going back to the topic of potential, Africa’s young population is one of the largest, and fastest growing in the world. 90% of Ghana’s population in particular is comprised of people 55 years and below [1]. Needless to say, the possible talent pool is large, and rapidly growing. It thus makes sense to look to this demographic for entrepreneurial endeavors rather than rely on the older populations. Additionally, the ability to innovate is exponentially more prevalent among the younger population than in the older ones. The inability, or refusal, to give young people a chance at enterprise will create inadvertent consequences for the nation, and continent by extension. The continent stands the risk of losing out on the innovative, economy-boosting, job-creating, standard-of-living-improving companies that these young people want to start.

The cause

Equal parts cultural dogma and an inability to adapt to the times, the reason for overlooking youth in business has pernicious effects that go beyond the young individual being snubbed. It has direct, long-term implications for the whole nation. In the United States for example, where the top 5 companies (by market capitalization) were started by young people at the time (as young as 19) are responsible for employing millions of people and boosting the economy, both local and national [3]. To have crushed these young dreams before they had a chance to blossom to the companies they are today, would be to miss out on a significant economic opportunity, not to mention the kind of innovation responsible for building the future.

Moving forward

While there isn’t one easy solution for this issue, certain steps can be taken to mitigate its effects. For starters, older generations need to do their part in listening to young people. Despite the youth often being described as “the future”, there are no proactive steps taken to engage them and understand how they can contribute their talents to society. Their ideas - if heard at all - are filtered through a thick lens of prejudice, which results in these ideas being abruptly shut down. Secondly, an effort has to be made to invest in young people’s ideas. Such investment can take various forms besides cash. Investments like providing mentorship go a long way in helping push ideas along to become real ventures. This kind of participation in youth-led enterprises, at the very least, bolsters the psyche of young people, offering some assurance of support.

It is important to note that most startups fail, and this phenomenon will most likely remain unchanged with or without the aforementioned support from older generations. This article’s focus isn’t about mitigating failure in business, but rather about mitigating prejudices that fail the youth. There are valuable lessons learned from failure that cannot be learned if the business never got a chance to even start. It is better to try and fail, than to be left with the burning question of “what if?”.

References

[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print_gh.html

[2] https://www.populationpyramid.net/ghana/2019/

[3] Top 5 companies: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook

Damon Osei leads a youth in business organization (@yibcommunity), whose mission is to cultivate youth-centered economic growth through youth initiatives and ventures. The issues highlighted in this article inspire many of the groups events, including the upcoming Y.I.B virtual conference. Contact Damon by writing him.

Elikem is a director at Very Temporary, to get in touch, send him an email.