(Photo courtesy of socialmonsters.org)
Whatever you think of millennials, they are a resilient generation having grown up in the throes of constant war and a great recession that destroyed many people. Perhaps these two factors, along with technological advances, are why millennials are often said to be the most entrepreneurial generation. While there are many factors that have contributed to making this generation who they are, such as being digital natives, holding high expectations, taking calculated risks and their ability to express themselves, certainly play big parts in making this generation who they are business-wise.
Digital Natives
Generation X, aka the “MTV Generation,” grew up in an era of revolutionary music innovations. Millennials got here just in time for the tech. Millennials have never known a world that didn’t include video game consoles, video recorders, the Internet or mobile phones. So, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that this is the most technological-savvy generation. They are, as the scholar Marc Prensky coined, Digital Natives.
Being digital natives, millennials see the world much differently than other generations. They trust technology more and are able to multitask better than any other generation (although, some have argued tech is a result of their infamous short attention spans). Therefore, they are often early adopters of new technology, more likely to integrate that technology into their work lives and more likely to try to fix a problem by creating a digital solution.
High Expectations
Millennials value great service and understand how important positive customer experience is for businesses and consumers. As digital natives, they know that technology can and should be used to improve customer service. So they expect businesses to be able to answer their questions and to do it fast. Their expectations not only contribute to their entrepreneurial mindset, but it also has companies moving in that direction to meet the quality demand. Zipwire’s Cloud Call Center is an example of software that is a result of the millennials’ high expectations.
Risk Adverse Risk Takers
Even though this generation came of age in a post-September 11th America with their country engaged in two wars, millennials have the lowest military enlistment rate of any generation. Only three percent of millennial men have served in the military. Compare this to 35 percent of the men in the Silent Generation (note: only records for men in the military are available for comparison). Millennials haven’t joined the military en masse because they fear being hurt. An exaggerated view of the military and war, which is most likely due to video games and movies, has promoted the idea.
Still, while millennials are adverse to military service, they are not afraid of taking risks when it comes to switching careers. According to The 2015 Millennial Majority Workforce Commissioned by Elance-oDesk and Millennial Branding, 79 percent of this generation would consider leaving their jobs in order to become entrepreneurs, believing that “pros are successful if they craft their own path.”
More Self-expressive
For millennials, everybody has always had access to their own soap box. That is, anybody can create a podcast, upload their thoughts to YouTube, create a blog or vent on social media. This platform to speak (again, thanks to technology) has made them more self-expressive than previous generations. Many have even used their entrepreneurial spirit to build lucrative businesses out of expressing their views or by becoming publishers of content on the aforementioned channels. Those who haven’t have at least witnessed the rise of these social media moguls and know that anything is possible, which certainly helps their entrepreneurial mindset.
