It seems like being a productive member of the society is the thing to do. Growing up, going to school, getting a job or starting your own thing, not all necessarily in that order or some steps might even be skipped,  is the cycle through which most of us are passing. A few months back, I wrote about jobs and careers and hinted about the growing trend of entrepreneurship. But before I get into discussing entrepreneurship, I want to start with a very simple question that my mind’s been pondering upon lately. Why does one work? Does one even have to work? In other words, is working a luxury, a necessity or better yet a simple yet mundane thing to preoccupy ourselves with? Are human beings becoming working-animals more than social-animals?

From the men and women who clean the streets, to the shop owner opening her store at 7 am everyday, the bus driver driving along his route, the shoe-shinning boy ready to clean shoes of people going to work, everyone seems to be getting up every morning to do something. So my question is, as basic as it may sound, why? Of course, there’s the basic answer to my very basic question which is: to make a living. So then I ask, does everyone who has a job need a job? Or even need that particular job? Some start off with a job as a source of income, and then things change. I doubt if there are people who started a job hoping to stay there during their entire lifetime. I think the idea of building something, or going somewhere comes after the need of having a sustainable income. But the tricky part of the cycle is that, once one has a sustainable income, one is very reluctant to taking the risk of moving somewhere else to build a career or grow in some way.

There seems to be such an emphasis on going to work rather than on building a career. From what I’ve learned, not every job leads to a career, and not every career starts with a job. Some jobs you do for the money, others you do for the cause. Now this is not to say that they are mutually exclusive, if lucky, you will have work that is related to advancing the cause you support and stand for in life. But not many have that luxury. And I guess the frustration of not being able to find a job, then finding one that doesn’t quite suit one very well is one of the driving forces behind entrepreneurship.

A lot of great things have come out of entrepreneurs, self-starters, who are motivated to make a contribution to their community, society or even world through their different talents. This shift of paradigm, from getting a job to creating your own, has had an effect on many things and one of them is education. Nowadays there are a lot of educational programs out there focused on teaching the basic ”how to”s of starting one’s own business or company. High schools, or even primary schools, are changing their curriculum to including classes that encourage students to think of building their own projects instead of seeking employment. A good example of countries doing that is Ethiopia with TVET education, with all its merits and demerits.

So, is entrepreneurship something that everyone can do? Or are some not simply cut out for it? I think this is a very important question, because you can’t force anyone to start something. As great and as empowering as it is to encourage entrepreneurship, trying to turn everyone into an entrepreneur defeats its purpose because who will consume the products that come out of that, and who will work for these entrepreneurs? One must take time and ask oneself: what drives me to do the work that I do? Be it to have a routine in life, make a living, start a career, learn and grow or anything else for that matter, questioning it is important because when you think about it you actually spend more time at work then you do outside of work.