Everyday buzzwords are being thrown around – “innovation” this and “entrepreneur” that.
How many of these words did you come across in articles today?
Asides from the humour, the important thing to note is that these words are crucial to Australia’s future. The prevalence of these terms throughout the Australian media helps demonstrate the importance of the startup ecosystem.
It’s an indication of the urgency to understand and progressively adopt entrepreneurship and innovation for the future of Australia.
The foundations of an internationally recognised startup ecosystem will require the support of the Australian community as a whole, not just the people currently working in entrepreneurship.
In Brisbane alone the entrepreneurial community and startup ecosystem is thriving. The resilience and passion of Brisbane entrepreneurs has uncovered the enormous benefits and limitless opportunities that this industry holds for our city of Brisbane.
The more support behind the startup ecosystem the faster it will develop and diversify, creating new opportunities throughout different aspects of the lives of Australians.
Not only do we need to focus on the ecosystem as a whole, but we need to ensure that we are backing homegrown startups. These are the businesses have the potential to provide new job opportunities and shine light on Australia internationally, leading the world in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Not only will see growth in job opportunities but we will see the formation of new industries and roles. This will diversify job opportunities and help experienced and talented individuals find job security.
Increased innovation and research into natural resources and health will provide opportunities for Australia to grow and become a resource mine for the rest of the world.
Australia has already made an impact on the international market with leading technology and research in agri-business innovations providing invaluable resources that are being increasingly sought by countries across the globe.
Continued support for innovation within these industries will improve the quality and rate of production, providing increased amounts for our own population and enormous opportunities for our export market.
The adoption of entrepreneurship should not only focus on business but the grassroots level – education. We need to transition from our traditional education and ensure our future generations are educated on modern industries, emerging technology, and experiential learning to fully grasp entrepreneurship at a young age.
We need to deviate from the negative stigma surrounding non-traditional education and encourage institutions to empower students to pursue their ideas and entrepreneurial ventures.
The first step is adoption and encouraging entrepreneurship and the second is to create change. The more supportive we are of the startup ecosystem, the faster it will develop and ensure that Australia is leading the modern world in entrepreneurship and innovation.
There are already countries far more advanced than us and we don’t want to get left behind.
We need to lead not follow.
This piece was first published on LinkedIn.
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Jock Fairweather is a Brisbane-based entrepreneur and owner of co-working space business Little Tokyo Two.
