The following post is a guest post by fellow Heretic Emerson Csorba, co-founder of Gen Y Inc. — Canada’s multigenerational culture consultancy.
One year ago, I came across The Heretic network after learning about Pascal Finette and his keynote speech to be presented at the World Business Dialogue in Cologne, Germany. Sadly, I didn’t attend the event; however, I instead reached out to Pascal and soon became a “Young Heretic,” you might say. And what a decision that was. In hindsight, the daily blog posts, conversations with Pascal and conversations about entrepreneurship with like-minded people across the world have made all the difference a journey that is often simultaneously exhilarating and yet lonely.
Along with my co-founder Eric Termuende, I made the decision to forego consulting or finance in order to start a consultancy called Gen Y Inc., focused on workplace culture through multigenerational engagement. As students, our aim was to build a company that we could jump into immediately after graduation, and we accomplished the goal. Since then, we’ve steadily grown across Canada, with ups and downs, and lessons learned that will take years to fully digest. And now, as the company crosses the one-year mark, we’re starting to see just how much potential there is, making small tweaks and pivots in response to what the market tells us.
But the reality is, no amount of success is possible without communities like The Heretic. And taking this one step further, success is only meaningful when shared with a community of friends, family and fellow entrepreneurs. We might underestimate the effect that a 300-word daily blog post can do in one’s life, but the influence these create collectively is profound. Whether we meet other Heretics or not, it is comforting to know that entrepreneurs across the world — whether they live in Canada, Austria or Peru — share a similar drive to better the world, one small step at a time. And in a world where youth entrepreneurship levels are dwindling, and underemployment is commonplace, the Heretic Network is a daily reminder that we can together build a better world for future generations.
Entrepreneurship is hard work, and there are few better — and faster ways — to learn about oneself. But the motto “Always Run. Never Walk.” is a daily reminder that being a Heretic is worth the time and energy that goes into building companies we care about.