Why Global Entrepreneurship Week matters

1. The opportunity gap: When you travel around the world, it is clear that talent is distributed pretty evenly. People are smart, ambitious, and creative in cities, villages, and everything in between. At the same time, the opportunities to use those talents just don’t exist for many. I think this is one of the most important injustices for us to recognise and redress to build a healthier, more equitable 21st century.

GEW’s focus on global entrepreneurship is a great way to highlight that, brilliant ideas and great organisations can come from anyone, anywhere.

2. Sense of common purpose: Entrepreneurs often feel a tension between the desire for creative freedom and the desire to be a part of something larger than themselves and their companies. Worldwide events like GEW have the potential to speak to that second desire, and in the process pull people out of themselves, even if just for a minute to discover new partners and new inspiration.

3. Aspirational model: Who young people look at and celebrate can make a significant difference in how they behave and what they aspire to become. Highlighting not just entrepreneurs, but peer entrepreneurs, has an immense validating power.

4. The youth bulge: Predictions of escalating unemployment among youth in developing nations; Job creation just isn’t keeping pace with growth among the under-30 population, particularly in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. For the most part, these regions don’t have the same kind of entrepreneurial support systems enjoyed by developed nations. They also don’t have consistent access to quality education, so employability becomes a greater issue, especially at the bottom of the pyramid. Helping youth understand the basic tenets of running your own business is a great start. Global Entrepreneurship Week does that, and provides models and idea exchanges to motivate budding entrepreneurs.

5. It is more than just a week: Global Entrepreneurship Week is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate all the amazing work that goes on year-round. Our partners (the wonderful organisations that run activities during the Week) use Global Entrepreneurship Week to launch something new, showcase their projects, or just generally raise the profile of entrepreneurship in their locality. They do this because we all recognise that entrepreneurship is a force for good. It can lift people out of poverty, enable people to take control of their own lives, or simply turn their passions into profit. Activities range from enterprise competitions to talks from local role models to large scale conferences.