Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to engage in conversations with entrepreneurs of different ages and financial backgrounds. These conversations have revealed not only the individual particularities of each experience, but, above all, the different ways of understanding the challenges of entrepreneurship. The act of entrepreneurship, although generally associated with a pragmatic ideology — summarized in the maxim “act first and question later” — also involves a complex relationship with the notion of time, a central category for analyzing the entrepreneurial mindset.
Youth and the Rush for Profit
The contemporary young entrepreneur lives in a context marked by the fluidity of what Zygmunt Bauman called “liquid times.” Embedded in this logic, they tend to value immediate results, seeking quick returns without adequately considering the consequences. Compared with previous generations, they may be considered more efficient, but this efficiency comes at a high price: the superficiality of their choices.
The multiplicity of options available — whether in the consumption of material goods such as cars, real estate, and travel, or in experiences related to leisure, health, and well-being — shapes a mindset oriented toward ease. This scenario stands in stark contrast to the past, when access to such choices was restricted and survival demanded, above all, continuous work and an almost exclusive dedication to subsistence. Thus, this is not about labeling the current generation as “spoiled,” but rather recognizing that it has a broader range of possibilities, which inevitably reshapes its priorities.
“The thingification of the thingified thing by the thingifier of thingomology’s thingological thingification.” Nothing To Do With Anything.
The Disguise of Modern Words
Another notable aspect is the language that permeates the world of entrepreneurship. Terms such as “meritocracy,” “management,” “compliance,” and “motivation” present themselves as innovative and sophisticated concepts. Yet, in many cases, they are nothing more than modern disguises for old practices of exploitation: intensification of labor, predatory competition, and the extension of working hours without adequate compensation. To a large extent, this is rhetoric that softens the harshness of a reality still marked by structural inequality.
The Ideology of Exploitation and the Historical Legacy
In Brazil, it can be observed that some young entrepreneurs do not align themselves with philosophical schools such as Randism — summarized in Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness — which advocates individual freedom as a driving force of progress. Instead, many reproduce an exploitative mindset reminiscent of the Portuguese economic model between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries.
During this period, Portugal became the first globalized power, but it did so through the intensive extraction and immediate exploitation of resources, without concern for sustainable development or long-term planning. This logic of “extracting as much as possible in the shortest time possible” profoundly shaped the colonies, including Brazil, which experienced a developmental hiatus between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.
By reviving this legacy, one could argue that part of contemporary Brazilian entrepreneurship unconsciously reproduces this historical paradigm: the relentless pursuit of quick gains, even when this means weakening the foundations of solid and lasting growth.
Final Considerations
Entrepreneurship, in any era, reflects not only an economic practice but also a cultural mindset. On the one hand, today’s youth have access to tools, technologies, and possibilities that allow for greater innovation; on the other, they run the risk of reproducing old patterns of exploitation and immediacy. The central question is whether we will be able to overcome this historical legacy and adopt a conception of time that goes beyond the rush for profit, allowing us to build entrepreneurship that is truly transformative and sustainable.