In Terms of the Entrepreneurship of the Young Generation
Humble Ecosystem
Humble Ecosystem
One of the most important issues in entrepreneurship is establishment of an entrepreneurship ecosystem, which is encompasses of the major players of this field, including parks, growth centers, VCs, innovation units, accelerators, and most important of all, creative and expert human resource. In fact, universities, which have paid special attention to the establishment of a technology ecosystem, have been recognized as valid centers of education in addition to their high scientific quality. The young generation of Iran, at least the educated individuals who are familiarized with the modern world, have new perspective toward the world. In the beginning of the establishment of modern government in Iran, the key to success was supposed to be the recruitment by the government. Families send their children to school and university to receive the licenses required to be employed by the government. The more financially-privileged families are able to send their children to valid universities of the world to obtain better degrees. In the first generation of government managers, no who could be found without an international degree. The term “slave of government”, which is used by the old generation, is something to think about. Masters needed no occupation and the money and credit provided by the government had no use for them. They only received government positions to develop their political-economic power. They would become ministers or lawyers to represent the king or people. However, peasants had no choice but to follow the orders of these people. Which master is more powerful and has more authority than the government? Therefore, there was competition between various classes of peasants to be the slave of the government faster than others for more than one hundred years. However, the world has changed and there are more complicated and different political issues at hand. Not only the government has not the same level of strength in the Europe, but also it has less authority in the developing countries. In the past, the government was required to report to no one and was free to do whatever possible. However, several monitoring units have been formed during this period, which have reduced the authority of the government. A responsive government is the one that responds to the parliament and monitoring units in addition to the people, and acts based on their opinion. In addition, financial issues involve specific processes, which must be carried out by relevant institutions. The government is similar to a shop, which requires regulated financial monitoring. In the past, kings could do whatever they want with their money in the treasury. Today, the modern governments must clearly state their financial assets to the people.
Therefore, they cannot recruit slaves more than the government’s capacity. In addition, the dignity of people has been elevated and they are not eager to be recognized as slaves in the past. The issue is not the title. Today, people have improved ranking and have been turned into those who ask questions from the government. In addition, people regard the government the same way an employer monitors its employee. The slave-master relationship has ended and is replaced by contractor-client association. Therefore, in most cases, being employed by the government reduces the dignity of most people. Moreover, how many occupations can be provided by the government? This is one of the meanings of reducing the size of the government. It means that the government will not be responsible for “all matters” to manage the country alone. Today, the government must regulate the policies and the people must manage the main tasks of the country. Therefore, there is less demand for government recruitment and many young individuals are eager to have their own profession and occupation.
One of the major problems of our society is unemployment. Almost all of us agree that the government must solve this problem and provide a situation that could lead to job and wealth creation. Does this mean that the government must recruit all of those who are eager to be employed by the government, which could exceed millions of people? Moreover, how many employees are required to work in a government? The maximum efforts of the government might result in the employment of only one percent of these people.
The main revenue of the country comes from the selling of oil and resources. In addition to improving the domestic condition of the country, this money must be used to increase investments. How could it be achieved if the government is required to pay the salary of thousands of employees and workers?
Fortunately, the 12th government has published the budget pill and everyone could review its different parts. We see that the highest share of the government money is spent on the salary of its personnel, which is a more polite name for government slave. However, the new generation, specially the educated ones, have other plans for themselves. They want neither government money nor governmental jobs. They only ask the government to establish proper policies for facilitation and creation of a technology ecosystem. It means that a situation must be provided so that knowledge-based companies and startups could act freely, create jobs and wealth and take effective steps toward the improvement of the country. We only need to open the gates to the new generation to provide modern entrepreneurial services by producing knowledge-based products and services and to use knowledge and technology to create wealth.
The phenomenon occurring around Sharif University of Industry is something to think about and also promises a bright future for the country. Establishment of more than 356 companies and startups near the university has led to the formation of an ecosystem by graduates of Sharif University. If this act is expanded across the country, not only the occupation problem is eliminated completely, but also there will be significant added value provided for the county. However, the government must provide the necessary facilitation and eliminate the barriers to achieve this goal. That is the only solution.
Parviz Karami, advisor to the vice president for science and technology affairs
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