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Nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit: Crucial role of parents

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Not very long ago, a ‘government’ job was the most ‘secured’ option for middle-class parents who kind of forced their children to take up cushy, comfortable career paths, facilitated by steady incomes and assured employment.

However, the attitude has changed in the past three decades ever since India started opening up to global investors, ushering in a whole new world of opportunities. The allure of the ubiquitous “government” employment has perhaps been a bit dimmed by the more alluring “private sector” jobs in multinational companies with suave, confident, neatly-dressed executives with fat pay packages, gusty cars and expensive lifestyles setting an example of its own.

In the middle of this apparent switch, in the last 10 years or so, entrepreneurship has gained a lot of traction in India with more and more young minds turning to it as a career option; though the number remains quite feeble when compared to the total working age of the youth population.

In this context, the role that parents play in inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship and self-assurance in their children from an early age is extremely important. Since young minds are tactile and can be easily moulded by the environment that they encounter on a daily basis, parents can play a significant role in fostering an entrepreneurial mindset by encouraging creativity, developing problem-solving skills, instilling strong work ethics, and providing access to resources and networks. They need to provide young minds with the courage and constant drive that is required to become self-confident — the main ingredient for success not just in entrepreneurship, but for life as a whole.

Parents should start early in educating their children on the basics of finance since financial literacy is the very bedrock of any business. They should actively encourage such qualities as passion and determination, creativity and innovation, adaptability and flexibility and a risk-taking attitude along with resilience. Inculcating risk-aversiveness since early childhood is a sure-shot way to ensure that your children never take the plunge into first-time businesses. So, please refrain.

Many of India’s youngest entrepreneurs have risen from very modest, middle-class backgrounds. We all know the story of how N R Narayana Murthy started Infosys with a loan from his wife Sudha Murthy from their flat in Pune. Byju Raveendran, the founder of Byju’s, is a self-made entrepreneur who started his career as a teacher. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, and Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO Rooms, also had humble beginnings.

Closer home, Techno India Group’s Gautam Roychowdhury and Satyam Roychowdhury decided to invest their modest middle-class savings in starting their first “computer education” institute in the mid-1980s taking a huge risk. Computers were barely a part of daily Indian lives back then but this duo had a vision and the perseverance to build a business empire by providing education and upskilling opportunities. This urge to do something new, to visualise the needs of the future and invest accordingly is actually the true hallmark of entrepreneurship.

If we talk about formal courses on entrepreneurship, there are multiple reputable institutes providing both short as well as long-term courses. The IITs and IIMs have their own innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship cells, National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) is a national-level apex organisation that offers training programmes, workshops, and seminars on the same. Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) is a non-profit organisation that offers several entrepreneurship-related courses and programmes, including the Post Graduate Diploma in Management — Business Entrepreneurship (PGDM-BE) and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP).

The structure of most formal courses on entrepreneurship covers the basics of business, such as business planning, financial management, marketing and sales, operations management, legal and regulatory compliances, leadership and team management, along with networking and resource mobilisation.

The spirit of entrepreneurship is vital for economic growth and development, and it is crucial for parents to instil this spirit in their children from a young age — formal refinement can always be achieved by supporting education as outlined above. With the right support and guidance, aspiring entrepreneurs can achieve their dreams and contribute to the growth and development of the country. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in India, and there is no shortage of inspiring success stories to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Dr Sanku Bose, Group CEO

(Techno India Group)

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