A Call to Young Founders: The World Needs You
I believe we are living in a remarkable time.
There has perhaps never been an easier moment in history to become a founder. Technology has lowered barriers to entry. Knowledge is available almost everywhere. A young person with a laptop, an idea and determination can potentially build a company that reaches customers across continents.
At the same time, I believe there has rarely been a moment when we needed young founders more than we do today.
This is especially true in emerging economies. Entrepreneurship can be one of the most powerful ways for an individual to create a path out of poverty — but its impact goes far beyond the individual. Founders create businesses. Businesses create jobs. Jobs create opportunities. Opportunities create prosperity.
But the need for a new generation of entrepreneurs is just as important in mature economies. Europe and other developed regions cannot rely indefinitely on the companies, industries and economic models created by previous generations. If we want to remain innovative and competitive in a rapidly changing global environment, we need young people who are prepared not only to look for jobs, but to create them.
We need more founders.
Being a Founder Is a Lifelong Journey
I started my own journey as a young founder and entrepreneur more than 30 years ago.
Today, at 58, I still consider myself a founder.
Why?
Because being an entrepreneur is not like completing a university degree. There is no moment when somebody hands you a diploma and says: Congratulations, you now know how to be an entrepreneur.
The journey never ends.
You accumulate knowledge and experience, but you must continuously learn, adapt, grow, face new challenges, make decisions with incomplete information and deal with both success and failure.
And failure matters.
In fact, some of my most important lessons did not come from the things that worked. They came from the things that didn’t.
Failure forces us to question our assumptions. It makes us more resilient. It teaches us what no textbook can teach. If we are willing to learn from it, failure can ultimately make us better founders — and better leaders.
But What Does Success Actually Mean?
This is a question every young founder should ask.
My motivation for becoming an entrepreneur was never primarily about money. I did not become a founder because I wanted to become rich.
Of course, a successful company needs to make money. Profit is necessary for survival, investment and growth. There is nothing wrong with financial success.
But I believe that when becoming rich is the primary objective, the focus is already in the wrong place.
A founder should first understand what entrepreneurship really means.
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Founders are creators.
We create ideas, products, services and business models. At our best, we create something that did not exist before and that provides genuine value to other people.
Then we create the company around that idea.
We create a strategy.
We create a team.
We create a culture.
And eventually, creation turns into leadership.
That transition is one of the most important — and most difficult — parts of the entrepreneurial journey.
Young Founders Need Mentors, Not Just Money
A young founder may have an extraordinary idea, enormous energy and the courage to take risks. What he or she usually does not yet have is decades of experience.
There is nothing wrong with that. Experience can only be acquired through time.
But it can also be shared.
That is why I believe mentorship should play a much greater role in entrepreneurship.
A young founder can build a team that combines young talent with experienced professionals. But ideally, he or she should also find an experienced mentor who can accompany the company through its early stages and, where possible, through its growth.
That mentor does not necessarily need to be an investor or a business angel.
Sometimes the most valuable contribution a person can make to a young company is not capital.
It is experience.
Someone who has already built companies understands many of the moments a young founder will eventually face: hiring the wrong person, losing an important customer, running short of cash, negotiating with investors, changing strategy, managing rapid growth, dealing with failure and deciding when to keep fighting — and when to change direction.
Money can finance growth.
Experience can prevent expensive mistakes.
Don’t Give Away Your Future Too Early
Capital is, of course, one of the biggest challenges for young founders.
And this is where I believe many entrepreneurs make decisions too quickly.
Bank financing can appear attractive because the founder does not have to give away equity. In the right circumstances, debt can certainly be useful. But young entrepreneurs need to understand that a bank is primarily a financial provider, not necessarily a strategic partner. Debt also creates obligations regardless of whether the business develops according to plan.
External equity brings a different challenge.
Venture capital, private equity and strategic investors can provide enormous value at the right stage. They can bring capital, networks, expertise and access to markets.
But timing matters.
Giving away significant equity too early can become extremely expensive later — not because the investor did anything wrong, but because the founder sold a large part of the future value of the company before that value had been created.
My preference has therefore always been simple:
Build as much value as you reasonably can before selling part of it.
Whenever possible, generate revenue. Find customers. Prove the concept. Reinvest. Bootstrap. Build traction. Become stronger.
Then, if you decide to bring in investors, you are negotiating from a completely different position.
Not every company can follow this path, and some business models require substantial external capital from the beginning. But raising money should never become the objective itself.
Capital is a tool. Building a great company is the objective.
Why Become a Founder?
Because entrepreneurship offers something extraordinary: the opportunity to shape your own future.
That freedom comes at a price.
There will be long days, sleepless nights, uncertainty, stress and moments when you question whether you made the right decision.
But there is another side.
There is the feeling of taking an idea that once existed only in your head and turning it into reality.
There is the moment when you hire your first employee.
The first customer.
The first significant contract.
The first time somebody uses a product you created.
The first time you realize that your company is providing livelihoods for families other than your own.
And eventually, perhaps, the realization that something you created is making a difference in society.
That is a feeling I find difficult to compare with anything else.
Entrepreneurship Is Also a Responsibility
This brings me to what I believe is the most important part of this call to young founders.
We are living at a time when trust in institutions, political systems, corporations and leaders is under pressure in many parts of the world.
Young founders therefore have an opportunity that goes far beyond creating the next successful company.
They can help create a different kind of economy.
One in which success and ethics are not opposites.
One in which profitability and responsibility can coexist.
One in which employees are treated with dignity, customers with honesty, partners with fairness and success is measured not only by the wealth we accumulate, but also by the value we create.
Ethical leadership should not begin once you have become successful. It should be part of the company you build from day one.
If the next generation of founders embraces this principle, they can become a genuine force for change — not only for their own generation, but for those that follow.
A Call to Two Generations
So this article is actually a call to two groups.
To young people, I say:
Have the courage to create.
Do not wait until you know everything. You never will.
Do not be afraid of failure. Learn from it.
Do not measure your success only by your bank account. Measure it by what you build, whom you empower and what value you create.
Find people who know things you don’t know. Ask questions. Listen. Learn. Stay curious.
And above all, build something you can be proud of.
But my second call is to my own generation.
Those of us who have spent 20, 30 or 40 years building companies have accumulated something valuable. Not only capital, contacts or companies.
Experience.
And experience becomes far more valuable when we share it.
We should make ourselves available to the next generation. We should mentor young founders, open doors for them, challenge their thinking, help them avoid some of our mistakes — while allowing them to make enough mistakes of their own.
Perhaps this is one of the greatest responsibilities of successful entrepreneurs as we grow older: not simply to look back at what we built, but to help others build what comes next.
Because the world does not need fewer entrepreneurs.
It needs more entrepreneurs. More creators. More responsible leaders. More young people with the courage to turn ideas into reality.
And if we combine the energy, creativity and ambition of the young generation with the experience of those who came before them — and put ethical leadership at the heart of what we build — we can achieve something much greater than creating successful companies.
We can create opportunity.
We can create prosperity.
We can create impact.
And perhaps, together, we can even help Make the World Fair Again.
About the Author
Mario Diel
Founder of Salvator Mundi Global.
A global entrepreneur with more than thirty years building businesses across multiple sectors and continents, he teaches entrepreneurship as a visiting professor.
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