The Truth About Millennials and Entrepreneurship

Millennials aren’t entrepreneurial.

At least that’s what the data want us to think. In 2014 (which isn’t as long ago as it feels), the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA reported that we millennials aren’t as interested in entrepreneurship as our parents were at the same age. Further, the report states that the percentage of college freshmen saying that “becoming successful in a business of my own” is “essential” or “very important” dropped from 47.9 percent in 1977 to 41.2 percent in 2012 (think 958,000 out of 2 million versus 824,000 out of 2 million).

When I read this, I thought about how unlikely it seemed. Especially considering that my parents and loved-ones from the Baby-Boomer/GenX era strictly advised me against going into entrepreneurship. And I know this is not a unique experience. So how could that very same generation be more entrepreneurial?

What about all the Mark Zuckerbergs, Elizabeth Holmes’, founders of Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox and Buffer? What about all the college grads I know (and I’m sure you know too) hustling and growing their ventures while working a 9 to 5 or living from their parents’ homes? Is it that we don’t use the word ‘entrepreneur’? Are these studies right and we’re just too bogged down by student loan debt and the recession to start a business? Are we not speaking out enough, preferring to keep our heads down and hustle hard? Or are we just really good at looking entrepreneurial on social media?

Here’s my bet:

We are entrepreneurial. We love to start and pursue things we’re passionate about, from Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts for our pets, to crowdfunding campaigns, missions trips and social justice symposiums.

We’re also indecisive. Understandably so. We have sooo many choices, decision fatigue is so real. We say, ‘Let’s lessen the amount of decisions we have to make by entertaining all the options!’

And we are used to instant gratification so we love to come up with excuses. Does this sound familiar?

“That doesn’t look fun…”

“That won’t make me happy right now…”

“This doesn’t feel good right now…”

“Yup, time to stop, I’m not doing it anymore.”

In the face of our indecisiveness and our love of excuses, here is our saving grace: once we make up our minds to go after something, we go after it relentlessly.

One study illustrates this point really well: although less millennials may be going into entrepreneurship, those that do, are leading larger teams, targeting higher profits and starting more businesses than earlier generations.

My conclusion? We are entrepreneurial, and we are coming around to making it a reality in our lives.

So, how about we get some stories of amazing millennial entrepreneurs out into the world? Not the celebrities like Brian Chesky and David Karp… Nope, I mean ordinary, extraordinary millennial entrepreneurs like YOU.

This blog post launches a series of Millennial Entrepreneurship features on ChelseaKrost.com telling YOUR stories: how you started your business/ side-hustle, how you think your experience is different from generations before you and if you had that chance to sit down with Mark Zuckerberg, what entrepreneurship question would you ask him. If you (or a friend you know 🙂 ) would like to be featured (because who wouldn’t want more publicity for their business!) send me an email – chelsea@genyshine.com.

Let’s get our voices and stories heard!