Building Better Entrepreneurs

Four years ago, I spoke at the fifth Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakech. I talked of the investments and initiatives we were putting in place to drive an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the UAE, and how we were committed to following a path of building new opportunities for our young people based on innovation and technology. I predicted the first billion dollar company would emerge from the Arab world within the coming few years. I talked to one government delegate after I left the stage and he scoffed at the idea that the Arab world could produce a ‘unicorn’ (a billion dollar startup). We didn’t have it in us, he assured me as he patted my arm.

A great deal of what I told the Summit remains true today. It is still true that never have governments around the world faced so many challenges as they plan and build for the future. It is still true that we’re not in a position to stand still and expect old industries and business models to sustain our efforts to find employment for our future generations. I said then, and I still believe now, that our kids will need to be schooled to invent jobs rather than find jobs and I stand by that, even though there are only six years left on the clock of my prediction.

Governments trying to legislate and reform to meet the challenges of technology-driven change in the private sector and the needs of young entrepreneurs need to change their mindsets. In order to work to build opportunity for the private sector of the future, we must think and act like the private sector. In order to foster entrepreneurialism, we must ourselves be entrepreneurial. And in order to help innovation thrive, we must ourselves innovate. And we need to believe in the future, act for the future and invest in the future.

I am very glad this week to see the acquisition of the UAE’s Careem by Uber. It follows that of Souq by Amazon. Not just because it proves my arm patting friend wrong, although we all like to be proved right – we’re human after all. But because it shows the ecosystem that I talked about us building, an ecosystem that has evolved and developed in the past four years to the point where we have literally redoubled our efforts, has paid off for our young entrepreneurs.

Now we’ve had those first unicorns, we can aim for our first rainbows…