How to become an entrepreneur? That’s the name of the talk I gave at a YEScowork conference in Lisbon at ISEG – University of Economics and Management. I’m part of the YEScowork team, supporting young entrepreneurs with ideas for a social Europe.
We believe that good ideas can turn Europe into a better place. We also believe that young people have a lot of great ideas. And we know from experience that young people need support to turn their ideas into reality. Whatever the idea is, it will have more impact with some entrepreneurial skills, connections with the right people a platform that facilitates effective project management. That’s why we started the project YEScowork.
How to become an entrepreneur?
This is the question that people with great social visions should ask themselves to turn their ideas into sustainable impact. I delivered a motivational talk for young people on this theme based on my own story and startup experiences. The answer to this question is very simple:
- Can you remember how you learned to walk?
- Take a moment and think of all the reasons why you managed learning to walk!
- You’ll remember people who believed you can do it (e.g. your parents), hurting yourself and getting up again (failure is ok) and being tired but trying again and again (persistence).
When you’re a baby and you fall, you don’t hurt so much. The good news for young people is, that it’s never as easy as when you’re at school or uni to become an entrepreneur, getting friends to help you with your projects and get up again when it doesn’t work out. Companies can also create a conducive environment for entrepreneurial thinking, but that is a different topic and talk.
ABOUT YESCOWORK
YESCOWORK is a an international project funded by the European Union and implemented by CAU del‘ ArT (Spain), Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao (Portugal) and Simon Schnetzer / Datajockey (Germany). The project consists of three major threads:
- an online platform to implement projects in a professional way
- a manual for social entrepreneurs on how to run successcul projects
- and a community that contributes to each others projects.
I committed to collaborate in YEScowork to improve the entrepreneurial capacities of young people with great ideas for a social Europe. I’m an entrepreneur myself and have experienced how important it is to collaborate and share experiences with others through coworking and using innovation techniques. I am convinced that YEScowork can have a valuable impact on the success of many young enthusiasts‘ projects, help them become entrepreneurs and ground their perspectives for a social Europe.
Multiplier Events: Barcelona, Kempten, Lisbon
Among our partners we’ve all organized events to celebrate the launch of the YESCOWORK platform and invite potential users and multipliers:
YEScowork – Multiplier-Event in Lisbon @ISEG
The YEScowork multiplier-event brought together young entrepreneurs, students and university staff, interested public and multipliers to present challenges of young entrepreneurs and good practices of how to support young entrepreneurs with their social ideas. The list of inspirational contributions: We Roll, Junior Achievement, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, YEScowork – Spain/CAU del‘ ArT. and Simon Schnetzer/Datajockey.
YEScowork – Multiplier-Event in Kempten @ Gründervilla
Simon Schnetzer presented the YEScowork platform www.yescowork.eu and manual at the July Gründervilla-Meetup. The Gründervilla-Meetup is a monthly get-together for the Gründervilla startup-community, entrepreneurs in the region and interested public. As celebrating coworking is more fun with good food I prepared together with my cofounder Tom a wonderful bowl of Kässpatzen & Salad, a regional specialty, for the participants of the multiplier event.
Thanks
I appreciated the international collaboration with the partners from Italy, Portugal and Spain. Thanks to the European Commission and the programme Erasmus+ as well as the Government of Catalunya for the financial support to YEScowork.