[Square] Everyone Should Start a Business at Least Once in Their Lifetime

Jae-Seung Park, CEO of VisualCamp and Adjunct Professor at Soongsil University

Startups have become a major topic of interest in our society to the extent that dramas about the startup ecosystem are being aired with great popularity. However, the majority of people still feel intimidated by the idea of startups and entrepreneurship or think it is something unrelated to them. But now, it has become an era where no one can avoid thinking about starting a business. It is said that the reality where everyone must start a business at least once in their lifetime has arrived. If you think about it a little, you will inevitably encounter reasons to agree.

Traditional jobs are disappearing rapidly. Jobs are being quickly automated and unmanned through artificial intelligence and robots, and the employment market continues to suffer from a cold spell due to the global economic recession combined with the COVID-19 pandemic. As of January 2021, South Korea’s unemployment rate reached a record high of 5.7%, with youth unemployment hitting 9.5%. In just the past year, the number of young people who lost the will to find a job and completely withdrew from economic activities increased by more than 24% compared to the previous year.

With the rapid disappearance of large corporations’ open recruitment culture, not everyone can enter a large company, nor can everyone become a public servant. Even if one gets a job, it is not easy to work until retirement age. In the era of living to 100, people in their 50s and 60s are pushed out of the workforce. Living to 100 means having enough money to live for at least 30 to 40 years after retirement. No matter how well one plans for old age, it has become an era where it is insufficient to endure for at least 20 to 30 years.

According to the “National Transfer Accounts (Flow of Economic Resources Between Age Groups)” survey published by Statistics Korea, South Koreans start a surplus life from age 27 and reach the peak of surplus at age 41. Then, the surplus gradually decreases, and from age 59, the graph shows a deficit. In other words, it is predicted that it becomes difficult to avoid a deficit life from age 59 with the money earned during youth.

In this reality, when unprepared retirement approaches, everyone faces serious concerns and makes a major choice: seeking reemployment. People try to find jobs by leveraging their experience and expertise, but in reality, reemployment is as difficult as picking stars from the sky due to age barriers. Even if one succeeds in reemployment with great difficulty, it is not easy to endure for long. Another alternative is entrepreneurship.

Ultimately, the important point is that when the retirement timing comes, the lives of those who are prepared and those who are not will inevitably diverge sharply. Therefore, even while working, it is essential to prepare and concretize entrepreneurship based on one’s interests or career starting from their 30s or 40s. Designing or structuring a startup at the point of retirement in the 50s or 60s has almost zero feasibility. One must dream of entrepreneurship from youth and build a future blueprint step by step while making plans.

Not only young people who find it difficult to get jobs but also those who have joined companies cannot be free from the topic of “entrepreneurship” for life after retirement. This is not a matter of choice but a critical issue where the future changes depending on who prepares better. In the era of living to 100, the common proposition is that we inevitably have to start a business once in our lifetime. “Being born poor is not your fault, but dying poor is your fault.” (Bill Gates)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.