Who said that today’s youth is not powerful?

As it has always happened, there are good and not so good young people.  What happens is that those times are particularly complex for society in general and specifically for them, and they do not have it easy to realize their full capabilities.

I would venture to say that there is a majority of really good young people. Well-educated youth is much more than at any previous time. And young people with a proactive attitude also abound, much more than we can see or hear.

Recently I have been invited to participate as a speaker at two events organized by two powerful entities of youth with leadership skills and proactive attitude: The AIJEC (Young Entrepreneurs Association of Catalonia) , and JCI (Junior Chamber International) .

With the AIJEC I have been related the last twenty years, and have been a partner, board member for 18 years, and now president fo the AIJEC PLUS (Senior Section for members over 41 years). On Monday they made the annual event of Catalonia Young Entrepreneur Award in a ceremony really innovative, intense, original and full of important business people (Senior and Young)

I have worked with JCI often in recent times, and I am impressed with their ability to work, their talent and his desire to enable future projects. Two Fridays ago they made the Young Entrepreneurs Forum, in El Vendrell. An act of training, learning, networking and leadership management, which lasted all weekend.

When you see young people motivated to go ahead with their own projects and other associations in the field, able to devote plenty of time and energy to different tasks and to prepare their future and that of all the society, to spend a July weekend to form and voluntarily enrich themselves far beyond formal education, one finds that if there is light at the end of the tunnel, it is the light coming from those passionate and committed entrepreneurs.

I love being in close contact with these people, because I learn many things, because I see that everything makes sense, because I notice that we will go ahead despite the hard times we are living, and because I realize that most of them are not focused on difficulties in the present circumstances, but on the opportunities ahead. They are working with the new parameters of the 21^st. Century, and are not anchored to the yardsticks of the last Century.  It is not being easy for them, but they have a clear idea how to succeed.

Even in the most negative moments in the history of humanity, there has been room for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. And if anyone is representative of this room today, these are the proactive young people, youth leaders and young entrepreneurs.

We are living a unique moment in history, where for the first time young people can nearly teach more things to elder people than the reverse. The change, new technologies, new values, new ways of relating to both social life and at work. Everything makes it a time where young entrepreneurs have much to say and do.

Men learn from both successes and errors, and even the second teach more than the fist concept.  So that young people will learn of all the monumental errors done by the senior society in recent times, and they will focus towards a new paradigm where the creation of wealth and welfare will be directly linked to values ​​of prosperity, at economic, social and environmental levels.

It is very important the future of young people, because it is the future of seniors and the entire society.

To AIJEC, JCI, and all active young people I’ve met in recent times, thanks for passing to me so much energy, for teaching me so much, and for making me reaffirm that despite the difficulties, the future ahead will be really exciting.