Recently few of my family friends from Maharashtra were on a week-long tour to Northeastern states and I happen to give them company in one of the states. Among them was an entrepreneur who was very curious about the economy of the state and asked me what is that the North Eastern states produce. I gave my feedback which did not convince him.

He was wondering how can a state grow when there are no such entrepreneurial activities. Looking into the size of the states and their population, the majority of the population must be surviving on Government jobs assumed he. The driver hearing our discussion said sarcastically, we have special contractors in our state. I was able to talk about all the beauty, culture and history, etc to my guests but was a little silent when the topic of the economy came up. There is nothing much to say.

So how long we in the Northeast would survive on subsidies and Government support I don’t know but when we see the pace at which other regions of the country growing vis-a-vis NE India, I sometimes wonder whether we shall be able to convince our next generation to stay back here at their homeland or there would be a mass exodus of brains.

Yes, all cannot venture out but does that mean others who are left behind should be kept dry and high? Should the Government be only responsible for providing jobs? We seriously need a paradigm shift in our thought process and encourage the culture of entrepreneurship to flourish in our region. 

Entrepreneurship should not be the last choice but should be a process of choice and our boys and girls should shine at it. No amount of training can make one a successful entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship flourishes when it is encouraged socially. Government cannot encourage anyone. It is the people who need to be self-motivated and clear on their priorities to understand what they want.

Being confused and taking an entrepreneurial journey as the last resort does not make a successful enterprise. If you see many entrepreneurs start their journey late after a stint of ten to fifteen years of a corporate job. Nothing wrong with it but why not early, why not as a first choice? When we can see fresh graduates in masses coming out of their academia and really clear about their entrepreneurial goals, then we can say that entrepreneurship is flourishing in our region.

When we see hundreds and thousands of educated youths from our region accepting a meager salary as their livelihood, I feel those who are running a small shop might be well off. Well, we need to realise that there are fewer job opportunities and more job seekers. It is important to clearly identify one’s goals early in life and do simple math, how much one can earn in a lifetime by doing a white collared job honestly, and what opportunities an entrepreneur can create for himself or herself.

The vicious cycle of getting a job is what is making our youths go below their potential. Everyone has the energy. It needs the right channelizing with the right kind of mentoring and support system. One need not be an expert in anything but should find out the right mentor or a friend who can at least give him the right encouragement than someone who is going to rather discourage.

As a society, we should start thinking as a cluster and not individually. What will happen to those who are not going to make it to a successful job life? Why not encourage people to be enterprising? Short-cut methods lead to short results. When you can struggle and bring in the best in yourself one has the possibility of a successful career be it in a job or in entrepreneurship. So if one has the ability to do the smartest and hardest work, then why not choose entrepreneurship.