English

Budapest Business Journal

Time was, being an entrepreneur in Europe carried a lot more than just economic risk. Social conformity and lifetime employment prevailed. In Western Europe, the dot.com revolution changed the perception of bright young individuals over last two decades slowly but steadily. Today, smart students are inspired by encountering serial entrepreneurs, and angel investors in their universities. Experiencing what starting a business is all about; the mad and passionate act of creating and running a company. Entrepreneurship (E) has clearly become the keyword of the Zeitgeist after the recent Financial Crisis.

In the same period, countries in the CEE region experienced the privatization of the “people’s wealth”, leading to formidable fortunes of smart and well connected individuals. The media calls them “vállalkozó”, they consider themselves as such, too. However, you would not call them entrepreneurs in English. Just as you would not use the E word to define the many “pályázatiró”, who are misled to believe that public funding is the prerequisite for successful business creation. These perceptions are dangerous and contribute to the hindering of advancement of business talent.

Yet, in recent years, a good number of fascinating global businesses were being built out of Budapest: IndexTools, LogMeIn, NavNGo or Prezi; without the media taking fully notice! Adam Somlai, creator of Prezi (the new PowerPoint) is only 32 today, just as is Marton Szoke, who recently sold his IndexTools (like Google analytics) to Yahoo for a bundle. Entrepreneurs creating these successful ventures should be the inspiring role models for smart youngsters, the ones to be imitated! These heroes are our featured guest speakers at the E courses offered by the European Entrepreneurship Foundation (EEF). These workshop programs are for all who are interested in getting started in business. Participants can be as young as 23; yet one of the most active “students” was a university professor, aged 52, who now will take his research results into a venture! It is never too soon, nor is it ever too late to become an entrepreneur. Ray Kroc, of Czech descend, was 57 when he took over the small-scale McDonald’s franchise in 1954 to built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world.
In EEF’s workshops, hand-picked participants meet these business practitioners; those who have done it. Hard-working and honest to the bone types, who tell how they succeeded in what they set out to achieve. While no two stories are alike, there is no better lesson for a start-up then becoming familiar with a recipe for success and a lot of the pitfalls that came along the way.

Entrepreneurship is not just a way of doing business; it is a state of mind, extinguished from the vocabulary of generations here. Preaching and nurturing entrepreneurial spirit is the best way to fight unemployment, advance the economy, and improve people’s quality of life in this region. Time has com to reignite it!