Following a thread from my recent guest post on the Aging Matters Blog at Sheridan College – Centre for Elder Research, on April 26, 2017, I will be co-presenting at their Business of Aging Global Network breakfast in Mississauga. Renee Devereaux – Manager, Entrepreneurship & Changemaking at Sheridan College and I, will moderate a group discussion: Entrepreneurship: A Shared Generational Venture.
One of my points is that the experience of entrepreneurship is pretty much similar for everyone, whether it is actually starting a business, marketing yourself as an independent consultant, or other variations. If there are significant differences between younger or older individuals, then it is likely more a case that we discuss attitudes, motivations and goals. Regardless of age, what many people overlook is the fact that concepts or definitions of entrepreneurship have changed.
As I said in my March 12th Aging Matters blog post: “From what I have observed … the journey is often episodic in nature, and … there are multiple variations of how people actually describe, design and construct their entrepreneurial story.”
In my entrepreneurship advisory work with clients over the years, I have had people of every age or stage of life say that they find the word entrepreneurship either intimidating or even overblown in terms of the way it is presented to them. So partly, the goal of the Sheridan presentation on April 26th is to demystify the concept of entrepreneurship, untangle the language and expand the possibilities.
Footnote.
As of yesterday afternoon, it has been confirmed that Dipika Damerla, Minister of Seniors Affairs in Ontario will also be making a special guest appearance at the Sheridan breakfast on the 26th. It will be interesting to see if there is something she has to say about how the Ministry portfolio will be taking any aim at developing a resource system to educate and support people with their entrepreneurship goals in later life. At least that will be one of my questions.