Entrepreneurs play an essential role in the economic growth of any country. An entrepreneur’s successful business endeavor can help create thousands of other organizations and millions of jobs around the world. So, it is not an overstatement to say that entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of the economy.
Today we think of entrepreneurship only as a way to get very rich very fast. Although wealth and power are by-products of being an entrepreneur, it is certainly not the objective of real entrepreneurs. They are motivated by curiosity and a desire to change the world for the better. Nepal is currently undergoing the most difficult period in its history economically, and we need entrepreneurship that will help us to come out of the recession.
Entrepreneurs Who Changed the World
Christopher Columbus: Many of us might not be familiar with the story behind the discovery of America except that he thought he was going to India but he was not. Columbus was a true entrepreneur of his time and he wanted to find a new world and he proposed his ideas to the various leaders of the European continent. After a series of rejections, the King and Queen of Spain finally invested in him and the rest is history. That single enterprise changed the world forever, hasn’t it?
Thomas Edison: Also, a scientist he was more of an entrepreneur, and together with his Nicola Tesla as a competitor he laid the groundwork for the modern economy with electricity.
Henry Ford: He toiled for decades in his workshop to perfect an engine that could be mass-produced and thus democratize transportation for the world.
Bill Gates: His vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home” was a turning point in history when computers could only be afforded by the military.
Jeff Bezos: People have talked about free trade for a long, but it is the e-commerce giant Amazon that has provided the platform to trade worldwide.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin: It is needless to say, how Google has affected lives around the world and created its global economy.
Elon Musk: He made driving an electric car cool and a status symbol heralding a new era in the fight against global warming, while climate activists are busy talking about it.
Biswas Dhakal: By creating the first online payment system in Nepal, He facilitated financial transactions and trade much more than the government policies.
The Problems with Entrepreneurship in Nepal
As you will notice except for one all of the above entrepreneurs are from the United States. Our problem is not that we are a landlocked country or that we are being manipulated by other nations or that our politicians have no vision. No, the real problem is that we have not been able to create an environment where real entrepreneurs can emerge. If Elon Musk had stayed in South Africa where he was born it is doubtful that he would have become the global icon that we know him as today. So maybe we have lots of Elon Musk’s here but because of the unconducive environment here, they were never able to emerge. But what if Bishwas Dhakal had migrated to the United States after his higher secondary school? Did he succeed ‘because’ he was in Nepal or ‘despite’ being in Nepal? Unfortunately, we don’t have a time machine to test this hypothesis, either way.
Incubation Centers in Colleges
A good sign is that few colleges have initiated incubation centers to support aspiring youths to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions. Yet, a lot needs to be done because we need to create real entrepreneurs who can come up with ‘economy-shifting’ products and services. Excuse me? Did you ask what are they? If I knew the answer, I would not be a writer and consultant but a globe-trotting billionaire. No, the answer is somewhere out there in someone’s head in Nepal. We just need to let that person(s) find a way to come out.
No.1 Secret to Being a Real Entrepreneur: Find a Big Problem to Solve
So, if you are this person or the group of people destined to take the Nepali economy on an upward trajectory, you must understand the most important secret. Being a real entrepreneur has nothing to do with hard work or even willingness to take risks. While both are important nothing compares to the most important part of finding the correct problem, that is, to solve through your innovative products and services. If you get this wrong but still work hard and take the risk on a problem that is not worth solving, then you will either succeed moderately or fail. Starting a new hotel, a new cloth factory, a fashion shop, or an e-commerce site might sound cool and will give you a sense of purpose but these won’t help in the u-turn of Nepal’s economy. It is a sad truth that most people cannot digest this secret but look no further than the above eight entrepreneurs.
Below, is a diagram I made to summarize this concept of real entrepreneurship:
The above diagram can be read as follows. Start from the bottom left side. You will see that there are five levels of enterprises. The higher you go, the kind of problem that the organization solves is a bigger one. The more left you go as in the lower type of organization namely shops, hotels, and restaurants means there are more players in that category. The adjoining segment across the slanting line describes the level of impact by each organization which is smaller. The more right you go as in the upper type of enterprises namely, ‘hidden’ or unknown now, the more left the impact increases.
Entrepreneurship: The Ultimate Way of Out the Recession
Let’s stop pretending that some foreign power is going to rescue us from the recession. Only entrepreneurs in Nepal can do that. But we have to stop being polite. So, I urge students, wanna-be entrepreneurs, and colleagues to be serious about finding problems worth solving.
Shrestha is a management consultant, trainer, and writer.
