Junior Achievement recently conducted a survey and found that 74 percent of teens stated risk and failure were the biggest deterrents for starting their own business.
I can certainly understand this mindset if it were coming from an adult, especially from someone with a mountain of responsibilities, like feeding a family and providing shelter. But why would a kid who has far more to gain than lose have such an aversion to risk? And what has dampened their psyche at such a young age to believe that failure should be avoided at all costs?
The beauty about entrepreneurship is that it’s one of those fields where risk and failure are vital components. They present opportunities for learning and correcting mistakes. If you’re an architect and design a building that crashes down or a doctor who cuts off the wrong body part, you’ve failed. There are no do-overs. But entrepreneurship is full of do-overs. It’s an accepted practice.
While risk/failure-averse teens won’t be the ones to necessarily jump off a bridge because their friends are doing it, there’s a propensity to avoid other things in which they can reap rewards, such as running for student council or trying out for a sports team. Naively fearing risk and failure isn’t selective but a learned behavior that flows across all decisions; learning how to take calculated risks and accepting failure as part of the process enables an analysis of each decision. And there are long-term consequences to raising a generation of risk/failure-averse people.
Starting and running a business isn’t solely about the benefits to the owner. Communities are dependent upon them for goods and services at competitive prices. They provide revenue to fund vital programs and jobs and income to provide for families. Our lives are better for each and every person willing to take the leap and start his own.
Where will we be with a country full of people who are crippled by the fear of risk and failure? Where could we be if they are not?
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