Google, Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram.
They have become household names in India and to an extent in every part of the world. Google is so popular that we have been using it as a verb for searching something. All these companies have something in common. They have been path breaking in their own fields. They were started by young people and have grown exponentially over a short period of time.
We have a seen a lot of politicians who talk about how they will make India a country where the next Google or Facebook will come from. Sometimes they don’t understand why they are saying it or what do they have to do to make it possible.
Here are some of the road blocks that come in the way of India being the home to the next big thing:
1. We Don’t Know How To Take Our Own Decisions.
Parents take decisions for us rather than just teaching us how to take decisions. Very often you will see youngsters doing something that they don’t like just because of parental pressure. Parents justify it by saying that they have experience and they want the best for their kids. You cannot blame them for thinking that way. To an extent, they are right. The only problem is that this curbs the creativity of the kids. Sometimes parents cross the thin line between protecting and blocking creativity.
2. We Only Study For Exams.
If there were no exams, we would not study at all. We have been trained for a marks oriented education. Our society judges us on that now. We are not curious. Being curious is the pre requisite for doing something remarkable.
3. Our Education System Is A Factory.
The system produces people who can do well if you ask them to do something but give them freedom to explore and more often than not, people will be confused on about what to do. This stems from the point above, when you are not used to using your own intuition to do something, you can’t do it even when you are one day given a free reign. Creativity is not a switch. Its a skill we need to develop.
4. We Take No Risks.
We are a nation that runs on Jugaad but one thing we lack is the entrepreneurial spirit. We all aim to get jobs at amazing places rather than creating amazing companies where people can work. We are averse to taking risks. We think going broke is the end of the world. This has been ingrained so deeply in our society’s psyche now that anyone who does something ‘adventurous’ is seen as someone who doesn’t care about his career or whose family has a lot of money so he has an option of going back to the well trodden path later on in life. Our parents, schools, friends and everyone else around us teaches we not to be different. Unfortunately, not being different leads us nowhere.
5. We Lack Good Mentors.
Lastly, we lack mentors. We are so narrow minded that we think that helping someone achieve their potential is like helping the competition. We are selfish but not in a good way. We value individual progress more than society’s development. We don’t teach anyone anything and so in turn we don’t get to learn anything from anyone else. Its a cycle.
What do you think stops India’s billion plus population from starting the next big thing? Please substantiate your answer with a reason.
source : http://www.youthconnectmag.com/