Wouldn’t it be nice if you can pick and choose which job you want? That there are so many jobs, that you are qualified for, that if you like another one better than the current one, you can just move on? And in the process get a higher salary and be able to care better for your family – you can give your children the education and home that they deserve?

As pie in the sky as this may sound to many of us, this is actually a life that we as South Africans can create for ourselves. It has been done before in other wealthy countries, so why not here too? These countries didn’t start off wealthy, they became wealthy.

All these jobs that we are dreaming of – where will they come from? How are jobs created, because it is clear that they do not grow on trees? Someone has to create them. Many South Africans believe it is the government’s job to create jobs for us. But government can only create jobs where there is a need for that particular job ánd they have the money to pay for it. Creating jobs for which there is no need or money, just for the sake of having more jobs available, is not sustainable. Government gets its money from tax payers – and where do they in turn get the money from to pay their taxes? From their own jobs which, in general, cannot be government created jobs otherwise government would be trying to pay itself, which cannot work.

The only other source of jobs is when entrepreneurs create them. These are very special people who have been born with very special personalities for this particular task. They have the ability to identify a business opportunity where many of us cannot. They have the vision of where they want to go with their business, which many of us do not have. They are so committed to what they want to accomplish, that they do not care how much work and time it is going to take of them, something many of us are not prepared to do. They know which skills and resources they need to accomplish their goals and, here’s the thing, will recruit other people to provide them if they do not have the skills or time to do it themselves. And we all know that nothing big can be created without a team. So it is just a matter of time before an entrepreneur starts building his or her team and, guess what, starts paying salaries to them. So we need entrepreneurs in South Africa, and lots of them. The thing is, South Africa does have entrepreneurs like in other countries, but why are almost one out of every two South Africans, that can work, jobless?

In order for entrepreneurs to get to the point of starting a business, they have to come to the conclusion that the hard work, time, risk, money and reputation they will have to sink into it will be worth their while. I mean, wouldn’t you feel the same? Why bother to work hard, miss a big part of my personal life, run the risk of losing all my money, my reputation and my dream, if it is more certain than not that my business is not going to succeed? That the odds will be stacked against me? That I will make no or too little profit for myself out of this?

So how do we, as South Africans, make it easier for entrepreneurs to come to the conclusion that it will be worth their while to start businesses that will eventually create many jobs so that we can all enjoy in the wealth that they have created? We will have to change the way we think about entrepreneurs. Their making money from their business is not a sin, it is their compensation for all their hard work and everything that they have risked. Our relatively small salary compared to what the entrepreneur earns is not a way to perpetuate inequality (nobody in the world is equal in terms of their assets anyway – nature does not work that way), but a way to have more and more jobs available. Entrepreneurs are not enslaving us, they are liberating us from joblessness. Fair enough, entrepreneurs are also just human beings like all of us, and you will find those that will try to pay their employees, even if they can afford it, less than they deserve. But then you go and find another job where you are more appreciated. And you constantly upskill yourself by learning to enable you to gun for better jobs when the opportunity arises.

When we have changed our mind set to appreciate what entrepreneurs actually contribute to the overall wealth of South Africa, we will start to become wealthy as a nation. Each and everyone of us. And our children will thrive. What more could we want??