They're not short of ambition. They just don't want to inherit ours
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
After coming back from Entrepreneur Camp, I got to know a few very young people.
Some are only 19, some are just past 20. Some are still studying, some have just started working, and some are already thinking about starting businesses, making content or running their own small projects.
We kept in touch after the camp. Later I invited them out for a meal and we talked for hours. I'd simply thought it was a rare chance to sit down properly with this generation, so I might as well ask a lot of questions. By the end, I felt their way of thinking was really worth studying.
My biggest takeaway was this: it's not that they don't need money or don't want to make money. It's that the way they imagine money is very different from my generation.
When we started businesses, the motivation was often very direct. I want to make money, I want to prove myself, I want to buy a house and a car, I want my family to live better. Money wasn't just money. It was also security, and identity.
Talking with these young people, they obviously know money matters, but they aren't as attached to the traditional symbols of success. What they care about more is: do I have freedom? Do I have choices? Can I avoid being locked into a system? Can I make something of my own?
It's not that they have no desires. They just don't fully believe in the desires the previous generation defined for them.
Money used to look like success. For them, money looks more like freedom.
Even education gets an ROI check
Another obvious difference is how they see studying. For my generation, education had something almost sacred about it. To change your fate, you studied; to get a good job, you studied; to put your parents' minds at ease, you studied.
This generation doesn't see education as sacred anymore. They look at the ROI.
Will these years of study actually be useful when I come out? Will I really earn back these fees? Will what I'm learning be outdated before I even graduate? If I can learn from YouTube, TikTok, AI tools and real projects, why do I have to take the same path?
It's not that they don't want to learn. They just don't want to bet several years on a certificate when they're not sure it will pay off.
And the way they learn is completely different too. We were classroom first: the teacher teaches, the textbook explains, chapter by chapter. Later we learned to Google, read blogs and watch YouTube. This generation is often TikTok first.
They scroll past a video that interests them and keep watching; they find someone who makes sense and go check out their profile; they see a powerful tool and try it straight away; they come across a founder's story and go research it; they see an editing style and copy it right away.
Their learning isn't linear, not A to B to C. It's interest-driven, fragmented, algorithmic and hands-on from the start.
That has upsides and downsides. The upside is that they learn fast. When a new tool comes out they might be using it within three days; when a trend appears they quickly get what it feels like. The downside is that they sometimes don't learn systematically. They see a lot of dots but haven't connected them into a complete framework.
We can't keep judging whether they're serious by how we used to learn. They do learn. The entry point has just changed.
It used to be the classroom. Now it's TikTok, YouTube, AI, communities and real projects.
Starting a business starts with an account
Their idea of starting a business is also different from the previous generation's.
Starting a business used to feel heavy. Register a company, rent an office, hire people, buy stock, open a shop, build a website, find investors, scale up. It sounded formal, big and stressful.
Many young people today don't necessarily think about it that way.
They might start an account, make content, take on affiliate deals, sell a few things, do a small project, edit videos or do design and marketing for others, offer services built with AI, run a side hustle, and first prove they can earn their first ringgit.
They want to start something, but not necessarily a big company from day one. It's more like they want to own an entry point of their own first.
A place to express themselves, a possibility of not being completely bound by the traditional system, something they can try slowly, learn slowly and grow slowly.
Starting a business used to be like jumping in. For them, it's more like testing the water first.
It used to be "I'm going to open a company". Now it might be "I'm going to start an account first".
It used to be "I need to find a product to sell". Now it's "I need to find a content angle so this thing gets seen".
It's not that they lack the entrepreneurial spirit. They just imagine the starting point differently.
Seeing an opportunity isn't understanding business
Of course, this generation also has a big blind spot. They're very good at spotting opportunities, but sometimes they mistake that for already understanding business.
Seeing a trend doesn't mean you understand business. Something going viral doesn't mean it makes money. Making money doesn't mean you have profit. Having GMV doesn't mean you have cash flow.
After something sells out, what about inventory? Returns? Customer service? How do you account for platform fees? What if the ad money is burned? What if the supply chain can't keep up? What if cash runs out?
You don't understand these things by watching a few TikToks. You only start to understand once you've actually done it, lost money and reviewed what happened.
I think this generation has a big advantage and a big risk. The advantage is they carry none of the old era's baggage. They're fast, sensitive, willing to try, and fluent in the language of young people today. The risk is they too easily mistake "seeing an opportunity" for "already understanding business".
But the other way round, those of us who've been in business for many years aren't necessarily better. We have our own baggage. We too easily judge today's world by yesterday's methods of success.
This generation isn't short of ambition. They just don't want to inherit the ambition the previous generation defined.
They don't necessarily want a stable job that means nothing to them. They don't necessarily think a car and a house equal success, that studying is the only way out, or that it's worth ten years to earn a title other people find respectable.
What they want looks more like freedom, choice, authenticity, and an entry point of their own.
That entry point might be an account, a small business, a skill, a side project, or one day a very big company.
As founders, we can't just look at this generation in terms of whether they're "sensible". The better questions are: why do they think this way? Why don't they believe what we used to believe? Why aren't they moved by the traditional path to success?
Because understanding them isn't just understanding a group of young people.
To some extent, it's also understanding a piece of the future market.