 Welcome to The Advocate, your Sunday reminder that important conversations are among the necessary tools for a sinner society. Today I'm focusing on the misconceptions that youth should become entrepreneurs to create jobs. Juliet is telling us to save Nigeria with our businesses. Raymond, on his return, talks about the cancel culture among Nigerian youths and Ruth advises us on how we can be ready for the new year financially. As always, your panelists are here to share ideas aimed at provoking thoughts with no-holds bars. Do stay with us. Misguided entrepreneurs So the government fooled us with the cliche, youths should venture into entrepreneurship and become entrepreneurs in order to become job creators. This high level deception corrupted our reasoning and made us to vigorously chase shadows. First, let me address the notion that the government owes the system jobs. They actually do not owe anyone job. It is their responsibility to create the enabling environment and structure that would essentially enhance and facilitate job creation. So they accidentally failed at this and took the cliche that young people must go become entrepreneurs. I quite agree that young people should become entrepreneurs. As a matter of fact, everyone was designed as an entrepreneur. I would address this another day. So this notion of becoming entrepreneurs eroded service and knowledge from our thinking process. This is why we've got so many struggling and failed entrepreneurs. I mean, folks legit jump out of school and jump into ideas and businesses with no basic level operational knowledge. This is why I personally believe that there's something fundamentally wrong with the cliche be your own boss. Some even boycotted school and jumped into entrepreneurship because Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Ma are their mentors. Guaranteed failure is to execute anything on a massive level ignorance. Show me any highly successful Nigerian entrepreneur who didn't go through the culture of learning and service by working for other people. It's high time we stopped funding ignorance. Chiliats, you want to go first? I think I want to go first. Because you're biased, like you said. Yeah, because from the world goal, your advocacy stroke aligns with a bias of what is lost around this, I would call it some excitement or exuberance on the part of our generation, thinking that certain things can be gotten on the platter. I believe the success curve is not linear, you understand. You have to go here, you have to go there before you eventually find your destination. So there's always that place for learning. It's not from nothing that even the educational system is structured in that manner. You start from the kindergarten, nursery, primary, secondary. So when you get to the university at a tertiary level, you've acquired the fundamental, the basic, to enable you function properly in that you understand. And it even goes beyond, it extends to the idea of young people wanting to lead. I always tell people, okay, young people want to lead. Where have you honed your leadership skills? They want to test it at the elective or international context. So I actually agree with you and we'll have to actually begin to defund this ignorance. Awesome, awesome. My mod is very right. I'm still biased, I'm on the remand side. But I think we should go beyond just saying that people should not aspire to be entrepreneurs without training. Because if you look at the youth, the range of youth is between ages of 18 and 35. 35 is old. So if you haven't worked before at 30, 35, maybe you could venture into entrepreneurship. Maybe. But I think people could do whatever they want to do because people do these things for different reasons, ignorance, desperation and all of that. So I think as a nation, as a people, we should be more intentional and look at how we can, for example, incorporate entrepreneurship as a course in our school curriculum. True. So that way, I mean, you're coming out of school with theoretical or academic knowledge. You know, practical business skills. You can also apply into your small business. Parents should be more intentional and teach their children how to trade. And if it is common in the Eastern region, these people don't struggle with entrepreneurship. They almost always succeed. So I think beyond just giving people that information that they shouldn't just dabble into entrepreneurship as youth, we as a nation, we as a people should also try to see how we can incorporate it in our curriculum. Parents should try to teach their children from the cradle how to do business. So it also gives them, it will help them for that option in case they get to that grid where they don't have a choice to do business. Ruth, I'd like to talk about how it comes from, to be your own boss. Okay, so for me, I look at it from two different aspects. So I completely agree with what everyone has said. But I'm also rethinking it. In some instances, we have to understand that people might just be, might not have the opportunity to work for others. So they are forced to at least be their own boss. That's one thing. But then, you know, all the knowledge and skills you've gained while growing up can come in handy. If you probably grew up in an environment where in most cases, medium to low to medium income homes in Nigeria have at least one parent that is either trading, doing something, you're likely to have assisted your mom or dad with his business. That is one skill you don't want to discard. So you are learning something. You are learning how to interact with people. You're learning customer management. You're learning finance. You're learning business acquisition. You're learning a lot of things. Those are skills that come in handy. Such that by the time you add your formal education to it, you can become a great entrepreneur even without having to work for someone from the get-go. So I think it's looking at it from both angles and you realize that, okay. As well, working for people, like I mentioned earlier, working for people gives you structure. There's that organization structure that is inculcated in you. The more you start working for- It's called paid experience. Exactly. It's pretty- I look at it this way. You're paying me to become an entrepreneur. Which is good. Taking care of my basic needs, and I don't need to worry about that, but I'm still at the same time getting a skill, an entrepreneurship skill. So some of those knowing, okay, this is how a board should be organized. This is how an organization should be organized. This is how HR should work. And all of those structures that will build you from just being a normal mom and pop shop to becoming a global organization, you would most likely get it in a structured organization. So all of these things. So on both sides, right, both sides work, you just have to find out if as an entrepreneur, in what area am I deficient, and how can I pull up this gap? Very true. It's just really important that we just think- I mean, your angle is really interesting. Look at it from both angles, both sides. But I think I heard Tony when he was working in his working days and he shared a certain story, what led him to really building something for the entrepreneurial market. And we can reduce- There are so many entrepreneurs already in Nigeria. Why is the economy not better? So that means there are many people who are just doing business. They're not really entrepreneurs. So I think it begins with the way you think, and you can work for people and still become an entrepreneur in that organization. So it's how you bring creative solutions to take the coming to the next level. You can go start your business on that premise. So it's not really about opening shop and writing CEO on your Instagram bio. It's about really understanding that it's about innovation, changing your thinking game, and how you create solutions from problems and turning problems to opportunities. I totally agree with you. I think the problem is not just- The problem is not the idea of wanting to be your boss. I think the problem is the thinking that I don't have to work for anybody, you understand? That is the thinking which you have to actually tackle. It is misplaced. Take for example, I'm a lawyer. The practice of law is structured by starting with a pupillage system. After you're caught up, you go and pupillage at a big law firm, you learn the rudiment of it. But some people tell you that, ah, they don't pay you money, you're earning, let me go to the streets, I'll help you, I'll do my- You understand? You may go out there, you make so much money in the short run. But the lawyer who leaves law school goes into a big law firm, or even your average law firm, starts to practice, learns the rudiment and everything. When he comes out, he's going to be miles away from the person who will quickly dash out there, you understand? So we have to find a way to balance the competing interest. All right, thank you. So if we must change the way we do business and build scalable and profitable businesses, we must rethink our ideology of entrepreneurship. So Juliet is next after the break. Do stay with us.