Casey, Looking back, I think you got a very valid point and definitely worth exploring.
My dad was entrepreneur and I know I have been obsessed about entrepreneurship since I was a kid. All my brothers ended up become entrepreneurs too now. For me, it wasn't necessarily about tech though at first. I just knew I wanted to do my own thing and get my first taste of entrepreneurship by 14. Exploring few different paths when I was in uni (sharemarket, property, network marketing, employment), but, none feel the same as that 'first taste'. Here I am, jumped off the cliff again on 23. The difference to childhood-experience is, by 15, I know I love tech. Love tech, love entrepreneurship. No brainer, tech-entrepreneur. Maybe you're right. We need to start from very early if we want to make tech-entrepreneurship sexy. Cheers, Hendro -------------------------------------------------- From: "Casey Butler" <ca...@shopfront.com> Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 10:00 PM To: "Silicon Beach Australia" <silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com> Subject: [SiliconBeach] Brainwash the kiddies. > > Hi everyone, > > I noticed that the Lifeguard Paper mentions the vital role that > universities can play as “a breeding ground for entrepreneurs”. I was > thinking, people don’t go to university until they are around 18 or > older. What happens before this? Perhaps we need to start “breeding” > entrepreneurs well before university if we want to create an > innovation hub… > > We need more tech entrepreneurs, so naturally people have to want to > become tech entrepreneurs, meaning they need to know such a thing > exists and has benefits… Question: In Australian culture, when do > people find out about tech entrepreneurship and how cool it is? In my > experience they just don’t. Not in their younger years anyway (maybe > if Dad is a startup founder- unlikely). People (especially non- > developers) usually have to fall into tech entrepreneurship, and that > often requires a lot of unlikely steps (example in a bit). > Another question: In Silicon Valley culture, when do people find out > about tech entrepreneurship and how cool it is? Way earlier, yes? > (I’ve never been there). Some of them even had Woz as a teacher! How > do we compete with that? > If we want to create an innovation hub, we need to get young people > excited about tech entrepreneurship. Otherwise they won’t even know to > look for the university programs mentioned in the Lifeguard Paper. > > In Alain De Botton’s latest book “The pleasures and sorrows of work” > he says “most of us are still working at jobs chosen by our 16-year- > old selves.” If that is going to hold any truth for the current > generation of kids then we need to get to them before they turn 17! > Heck, we could even be getting into primary schools- Obama's doing it: > http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/obama-speech-to-school-children/. Once > again, how do we compete with that? Somehow I can’t see K–Rudd at a > school visit telling kids to go out and found the next Aussie tech > sensation. > > I remember looking at the pamphlet rack in the careers office in year > 12 (2005). There were pamphlets for everything from plumbing and panel > beating to accounting and law and I wasn’t really interested in any of > them. There wasn’t a pamphlet that said “create and market awesome > things that people want and change the world.” Had that pamphlet been > there, I might have dived right in (or at least started thinking about > it), but instead I went off to do an Arts course, hate it, drop out, > play in bands (apologies for the life story- just trying to make a > point), start small business operations and generally wonder what the > hell to do with myself. Meanwhile, young Valley entrepreneurs were > getting a massive head-start on me. Finally after a year and a half I > had the idea for “a website” and fell into tech entrepreneurship > without even knowing it. It was then another 6 months before I really > learned what I was doing- what a startup was, what the significance of > Silicon Valley was, what a venture capitalist was, what TechCrunch was > and the fact that there was a whole start-up culture out there (and > Silicon Beach- awesome). If you look at this in Gladwellian terms, at > the rate tech entrepreneurs work I was probably already 2000+ hours > behind my Silicon Valley counterparts who had their eyes on the prize > as teenagers. > > When I found the startup life I was instantly hooked, but before that > I didn’t know about any of this stuff, and that’s the thing- no-one > does. We do, but no-one else does. The Lifeguard Paper mentioned that > the government lumps all forms of technology companies into one “ICT > sector”. Well I can guarantee that the Australian public does as well, > and young people are no exception- they see anything related to “IT” > through a negative lens- conforming in suits, cubicles, too much > coffee, corporate greed and the TV show “The Office”. To the young > Aussie every tech company is operating out of a big black office like > Coles Myer and being generally “sterile”. That’s what I get called by > my friends- sterile- because they think I am spending most of my week > faxing forms to BHP or something. I don’t think I’ve yet met a person > my age (22) or younger outside of Silicon Beach that has heard of > TechCrunch or startups or an RSS reader or Silicon Valley or stock > options as incentives (unless they are in finance). Everyone's using > social networks etc but no-one knows where they come from, with the > exception of “that rich guy who made Facebook” and “Tom from Myspace”. > In my experience if you try to talk to someone (anyone) about tech > entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley you’ll get a reaction that makes > you feel like you’re speaking Swahili or something. Silicon-Valley- > style tech entrepreneurship is so distant from mainstream Australian > culture that it makes Swahili look legible. > > This needs to change for the coming generation. I’m not saying that > everyone who hears about tech entrepreneurship will care- no way- but > a bit of education could be invaluable. Nor am I suggesting that tech > entrepreneurship is a job you choose out of high school (it can be), > but letting young people know about it early and telling them "this is > possible in Australia" may influence there career choices. And get > them thinking/inspired. There must be heaps of kids out there that > would absolutely love this stuff if they knew about it. It seems > almost unfair that a kid can be baffled by what they want to do in > life without being told about the coolest thing out there. > > Perhaps tech-entrepreneurship awareness is something the government > can help with or perhaps we need to do it ourselves. What could we do? > That pamphlet in the rack at school would be a great start. If the > school would allow it... Even some school presentations on the perks > of the startup life featuring images of people like Evan Williams to > an Eye of the Tiger soundtrack? That would work I think. The Lifeguard > Paper mentions work experience placements at startups for uni > students, but what about high school students? I did my high school > work experience at the Australia Post IT department. The picture I got > of the perceived monolith that is the “ICT industry” was so far > removed from tech entrepreneurship it isn’t funny. > > If Steve Jobs was not born in Silicon Valley would he have been a tech > entrepreneur? Are there Steve Jobs all over Australia right now > missing out simply because of lack of awareness? If we don’t get > marketing and harvest (awful word) these people at a young age we will > remain reliant on people falling into tech entrepreneurship later in > life and hence will posses a limited talent pool and always be that > bit behind. Not the best situation for an aspiring innovation hub. > > We must brainwash the kiddies. > > So, do I sound crazy or does this make sense? I suppose I’m coming > from a non-technical founder angle. How did you get involved in tech > entrepreneurship? Could you have benefited from some earlier exposure? > Should we be pitching tech entrepreneurship to young people? Should > Eye of the Tiger be the soundtrack for the presentation or should it > be 2pac Changes… > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF No lurkers! 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