Young entrepreneurs must be creative to endure in business

Evenesis chief executive officer and founder, Yusno Yunos, said to become a successful entrepreneur, a young person had to create ideas by seeking problems and solving them to ensure they were capable of facing challenges in entrepreneurship challenges.

“This feeling of being pampered can also be due to a feeling of entitlement to government fundings. While some entrepreneurs are very dedicated, some feel that the government is not helping them or that no one is buying their products, they blame everything on others and not themselves.

‘’That is why, I feel one should not be too spoiled, look for ideas outside. At the same time, we need to know where we stand, are we able to take on the risks of being an entrepreneur, ”he said in the programme ‘Suara Professor Negara’ by Bernama TV on the topic Post-COVID-19: Strategies for Encouraging Youth to Become Entrepreneurs yesterday.

Commenting on the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yusno admitted that it was very challenging to regain the confidence of youth to venture into entrepreneurship as they were more fearful and feeling at risk as compared to before the outbreak.

Matters like mentality, education and awareness needed to be applied to the group from now on so that they were compelled to venture into entrepreneurship as well as help the country progress and open employment opportunities, he said.

Sharing Yusno’s views, Malaysian Youth Development Research Institute, chief executive officer Dr P. Vellapandian, said that among the key aspects to be applied to the minds of every young entrepreneur was creativity in tackling a situation.

In addition, Vellapandian said entrepreneurs must also to have some characteristics including leadership, sensitivity or concern for something that happened around them and had the resilience to rise again after a failure.

Meanwhile, Prof Dr Nor Aishah Buang from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty of Education said the understanding on entrepreneurship education among students at the school and university levels was still lagging far behind.

Prof Dr Suzana Raja Kasim from Universiti Malaysia Kelantan’s Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business said involvements (in entrepreneurship) not only depended on educational institutions, but also government institutions, non-governmental organisations, local communities, corporate sector, and (successful) entrepreneurs to spur the interest of the young graduates.

"In the context of moulding competitive entrepreneurial graduates, we also look at entrepreneurial skills, values and traits of successful entrepreneurs and how other skills can be formed to build a new generation of young entrepreneurs," she said.