The Blog

How do social perceptions and intellectual stereotypes influence our own road to success? Does this trickle down to the way the economy is tiered?
 
If society constantly educates that a certain path will always lead to success, then people choosing that path know that from inception they will be ‘high flyers’. The question is: what happens now? The state of our economy has been an equaliser, as both sides are finding it hard to get ahead, but will this influence the future of our economy?
 
At THECUBE we have a variety of graduates from both sides and we are interested to see how they will develop and evolve, how their struggles will influence the type of business they start, and the paths they will take with regards to their careers. Going back to the psychology involved, many of the corporate or financial graduates are adamant that they want a specific career, one which will have them employed by a big corporate name. For many, this is the first time that they will experience failure, and they don’t know how to deal with it. Their linear thinking allows them to only keep moving forward without having a peripheral look at the choices around them. In the past, this would have been a positive quality, having that tunnel vision directed at your goal, however, we now notice that this is what’s holding them back: the inability to think freely out of the constraints of what they will be or should be. Most haven’t considered another choice, and do not hold the tools to be diverse nor the ability to adapt, as an ‘opportunity chameleon’.

 
Conversely, the creative graduates have an innate ability to think away from the prescribed path; their minds work in a way that allows them to follow tangents that might aid them in some way to getting to the goal, even if they do stray onto an unconventional route. They can mould or ‘colour’ themselves to fit or blend in with any opportunity. They have been taught about collaboration, as is the nature of most sectors of the creative industries, and about building a strong network. Most importantly, they will have to be resourceful to get their dream job. There has never been a sense of entitlement as there has been and still is with the corporate side, and in the end only the most talented, strongest and diverse creative individuals rise to the top.
 
If these attributes begin to seep into the way that corporate graduates operate, it will have a monumental impact in the type of employee these graduates will become. The arrogance that used to prevail in the corporate world, where connections, wealth, and entitlement meant an easy ride to the top, has been swept away by the recent financial crash and its ensuing chaos. It is now a game of equals. The fact that graduates now have to wait a year, or even longer, before being hired by their ideal corporation will create a filter that will eliminate the people who would have preferred an easy path towards financial success and a prestigious job title. The graduates of the near future will instead keep a dedicated head on their shoulders, keep fighting for what they want to achieve, and will as a result be grateful for what heights they reach whilst being eager to perform – not just for money, but because they have developed a passion for what they do.
THECUBE is a coworking space for enterprise and we believe that the graduates who will really make an impact on the economy are those with ideas – whether they are coming from a creative background or a corporate one, it is the production of ideas that will move things forward. What would further ensure stability is the merging if creative and corporate skills together: ideas are nothing without the people to implement those ideas, or ‘idea engineers’.
 
If these graduates and their talents are not wasted and are nurtured instead, they will make better employees, who will have a real desire to improve the industry they are going into, rather than being thoughtlessly pursuing money and stability. And of course there will be those who aren’t content with being employees, who will go on to create amazing new businesses, which will help with the labour involved in rebirthing the economy as a better, more powerful and healthy being. THECUBE is looking to incubate and catch these graduates, with the interest of helping them learn from each other’s skills to create versatile and innovative enterprises.
 
We believe that homogeny and specialisation are archaic ways of conducting business – we are concerned only with forging a better path for all industries, so that our future destination is one of stability and prosperity.
Written by: Araceli Camargo Kilpatrick
Edited by: Russell Thomas