South Africans have an aversion to risk. We aspire to go to university or some other tertiary institution, but after that, instead of getting involved in a start-up or, heaven forbid, even founding a new business, we tend to go and look for the security of a corporate job.
Americans, on the other hand, and especially those from places like California, have been brought up to believe they can do anything if they put their minds to it. There’s a culture of risk taking and rewarding it.
If you need confirmation of this chutzpah, just watch five minutes of any American reality talent show on television. Those who don’t make the grade often look genuinely baffled when they’re told their vocal prowess is more akin to a cat being throttled than a chorus of cherubim.
A century of geopolitical dominance has, at least in part, fostered a belief in Americans about their own abilities. This tendency, perhaps to overestimate, has helped, along with excellent tertiary educational institutions, to foster a healthy, can-do start-up culture.
Many Americans not only believe they can change the world, but are actually trying to do so. They pooh-pooh naysayers and eschew negativity. The attitude is: let’s just go and do it.
Another benefit of can-do approach is that when they fall, they bounce right back up. Failure is a “valuable lesson” or a “necessary milestone”. This is all the more apparent in cities such as New York and San Francisco, where money chases after smart university graduates.
It’s little wonder many of the start-ups emerging in South Africa are reworked versions of existing US ideas. Of course, the ones that merely copy and paste an idea often fail. It’s the ones that adapt it to South Africa’s context and challenges that survive and thrive.
South Africans need to figure out how to foster an appetite for risk among graduates. We need to encourage youngsters to start their own companies when they leave school or university rather than looking for the first big corporation that will have them.
Not only is this important because new businesses create new jobs, but because of the shift in mindset it encourages. We need to be less afraid of failure. After all, as countless entrepreneurs — and the American Eric Ries, with his lean start-up methodology — will tell you, it’s a character-building experience.
Instead, we teach young South Africans to play it safe. Pity. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
- Craig Wilson is TechCentral deputy editor; engage with him on Twitter