Today’s smart students are increasingly developing, but not many are willing to take risks. Many students are capable, but they cannot apply their skills to use innovation. Intelligent and financially capable students, after graduating, are feared to become employees who remain in their comfort zone and get caught up in the dirty games of state or private institutions that exploit their intelligence to gain institutional monopoly power in the country.
This has resulted in students’ thinking remaining partial and inexperienced, causing many of them to become gloomy. If even final-year students remain relaxed, engage in excessive dating, have poor grades, never participate in organizations, never acquire specific skills, and have no interest in striving to be independent, it is tantamount to killing our future. It is even more concerning to think that the prospect of employment after graduation has become a “ghost” for some students due to a mindset that relies heavily on dependency and quick fixes.
Of course, to find a more suitable job, you need to make every effort possible because competition is getting tougher, so students are required to be proactive and innovative in order to get a job. Students do not have to work according to the title they obtained while in college. If students and graduates are asked what profession they dream of, it is certain that almost half of them, if not more, will answer that they want to be employees. Very few will answer that they want to be entrepreneurs, and the dreams that students had when they were young are now nothing more than a mere fantasy.
Students do not always have to become employees in companies or other institutions, let alone civil servants or the more well-known private sector employees. Students can independently create their own jobs. There are many ways to compete for jobs, one of which is by creating your own job so that you do not have to depend on others. For example, in entrepreneurship, we must dare to be creative and innovative. Being creative and innovative means creating something different from others, something that no one else has thought of before and that is certainly interesting.
In addition, it can avoid characteristics related to dependence on existing jobs and is completely safe because it is considered a secure and relaxed job, which makes the next generation lazy and reluctant to come up with new ideas for the future. This kind of dependence should not occur because, apart from becoming a burden on the government, it also prevents students from living creatively to build independence.
The introduction of entrepreneurship curricula on campus offers new hope for instilling a spirit of independence among students. The curriculum will be effective if it is not merely a topic of discussion in class, but rather a means of directly applying the knowledge to create job opportunities for oneself and others. Becoming an entrepreneur is an opportunity that students can seize. Government-initiated programs such as the Student Creativity Program (PKM) or the Student Entrepreneurship Program (PMW), for example, can serve as a starting point for students. While existing campus entrepreneurship communities like the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) have helped some students become pure entrepreneurs, the implementation of an entrepreneurship curriculum could shift the current mindset of students toward becoming artistic, spiritual, intelligent, and intellectual individuals.
There are many entrepreneurial ventures that students can pursue, ranging from producing goods or services, such as setting up a tutoring business or producing innovative goods and food. While competitors are still asleep and lulled by playing around in their comfort zone, such as dating, playing on social media, hanging out, and so on, now is the time to show your creativity. Start building your own business empire on a solid and highly competitive foundation. Having your own business and becoming a leader in the industry is not a matter of having capital or not. It is more about willingness and the ability to read opportunities. That way, people will be more interested and able to do it. Be creative and innovative, and someday all of that will become our future investment.
www.mediaindonesia.com – Nurintantio Purwo Saputro, Management Student (0209U219)
