Yes they do. And here is why.
Art imitates life. The startup sensation has become a bigger part of our national consciousness because entrepreneurialism is no longer an additional activity. It is hot and trendy, not to mention, a particularly rewarding and fashionable form of work.
High-profile successes from the western world have fuelled the fire of the Nigerian Startup Ecosystem. The Economist recently described the new gold rush in startups as a “Cambrian moment,” and goes on to say that “the prolonged economic crisis that began in 2008 has caused many millennials — people born since the early 1980s — to abandon hope of finding conventional jobs, so it makes sense for them to strike out on their own or join a startup.” Okay so now you have a good reason for starting your own company, if you didn’t have one before, that is.
We are in a tech bubble – if you don’t know, wake up! – and the message from “Silicon Valley,” “Yabacon Valley”, Silicon Lagoon, the movie “The Social Network,” the press, and even much of the Nigerian tech ecosystem, is that it is being led and peopled by young geeks. It is easy to think that people over a certain age cannot innovate in Nigeria’s – Africa’s – new tech scene.
But the point here is this: Millennials are not the only ones who have noticed that startups are in, and we are definitely not the only ones exploiting the opportunity. There are Tech revolutionists out there who are not millennials. Their kids are. We have: Mr Tomi Davies, who has been world of information and communications technologies for over 30 years, he would give young geeks out there a run for their startup – funding? – money; and he’s not a millennial;
Obinna Ekezie, he played professional basketball till he was 32, then he went on to start ZeepTravel [Wakanow.com], an online business allowing travel services for those going to and from America and Africa; and the list could go on.
According to a report issued by the Kauffman Foundation, “the average and median age of U.S.-born tech founders was 39 when they started their companies. Twice as many were older than 50 as were younger than 25.” Considering the fact that the Nigerian economy has had a few hard knocks, I could say that people innovate, technologically speaking, well into their 70s. People of all ages, in other words, are starting successful companies; whether they have an idea how to work a smartphone or not.
So maybe younger people are more malleable — less set in their ways, able to adapt to new technology and they are early adopters (Twitter, Tumblr and Snapchat.) But as Philip Ross puts it in the IEEE Spectrum, “The raw ability to grasp new things — or fluid intelligence — begins to fall in the 20s, while the mastery of familiar things — or crystallized intelligence — rises for almost as long as a person stays in harness. That’s why older people famously substitute craft for cleverness in sports as diverse as boxing and swimming.”
So young entrepreneurs have something to look forward to; older entrepreneurs should be comfortable too because entrepreneurialism, previously identified with youth, is available to everyone, regardless of age.
From: David DuPont via Re/Code; Photocredit: SantaGoturismo
