Why Youth Day Matters
Youth Day in South Africa is more than a date on the calendar. It marks a moment when young people, faced with deep injustice, chose to act and in doing so, forced a system to confront itself. The courage shown in 1976 wasn’t symbolic; it was rooted in resistance, vision, and the conviction that change was not only possible, but necessary. That same spirit endures today. Across the country, young people are still challenging the status quo. They are asking difficult questions, pushing back against exclusion, and reimagining the systems that continue to hold them back.
But the nature of the challenge has changed. Youth unemployment sits at around 43%, and the issue has never been a lack of motivation. Young people are not short on ambition, but the systems around them often fail to match their energy and potential. Many find themselves up against fragmented structures that are poorly designed to support long-term growth. As a result, opportunities feel out of reach. Not because young people are unwilling to try, but because the pathways forward are unclear, underdeveloped, or simply inaccessible. When that potential remains unrealised, the impact is felt not only by individuals or the economy, but across communities and society as a whole.
If Youth Day is to remain more than an act of remembrance, it must also be a call to responsibility. It should prompt us to ask harder questions about the futures we’re making possible (or impossible) for young people. One answer lies in how we support entrepreneurship. Not as a hustle or last resort, but as a meaningful, long-term path toward self-determination, economic participation, and national development.
Moving Past the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur
As we turn to the topic of entrepreneurship, a familiar narrative often resurfaces: the idea that entrepreneurs are born, not built. That some individuals are simply wired for business. However, in fields where excellence is intentionally nurtured, such as sport, science, or the arts, we know this simply isn’t true. Talent, in every case, is shaped over time. Athletes are trained, scientists are mentored, artists are coached, refined, and challenged. Achievement doesn’t arrive fully formed; it is the result of structure, exposure, and sustained support. Behind every exceptional individual is a system that believed in their potential and invested in their growth.
Entrepreneurship follows the same logic, though we don’t always treat it that way. We tend to celebrate success as if it’s purely the result of instinct or personal grit, while overlooking the ecosystem that made it possible. When someone doesn’t succeed, the assumption often shifts to a lack of ambition, rather than a lack of support. Were they given the right tools? Were they exposed to opportunities early enough? Did they have space to learn through failure? Allowed the space to learn through failure? Without that foundation, even the most driven entrepreneurs can fall short.
These assumptions have real consequences. When we believe that entrepreneurs simply emerge on their own, schools don’t see the need to teach entrepreneurship. Investors stick to familiar profiles. Policymakers chase short-term outcomes instead of long-term infrastructure. Funders focus on one-off competitions instead of building sustained systems of support.
Building the Conditions for Growth
Entrepreneurship, like any craft, can be taught. Research from the Kauffman Foundation shows that early exposure, paired with mentorship and structured learning, significantly improves outcomes.
At the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, we’ve seen this in practice. When young people are given the right kind of support such as steady guidance, consistent belief, and the time to develop their sense of what’s possible begins to shift. They start exploring ideas more seriously, building confidence in their abilities, and developing the resilience it takes to shape their own futures.
This goes far beyond economic resilience. It’s about treating entrepreneurship as a real, long-term career path. Not something reserved for the well-connected or the lucky, but something young people can pursue, given the right structure and support.
Lessons from High-Performance Pipelines
If we want to build these systems, we can learn from fields that already do this well. In South African rugby, young players are scouted and developed through schools. In Jamaica, children train from an early age to compete on the global sprinting stage. Academic Olympiads identify and mentor high-potential learners through long-term programmes.
Entrepreneurship can and should follow the same pattern. At the Foundation, our work rests on three core principles:
- Early Talent Identification: We look for entrepreneurial promise before it’s polished,when belief and exposure can still make the biggest difference.
- Strengths-Based Development: We build around what already exists in a young person,curiosity, resilience, leadership and not just academic scores.
- Long-Term Support and Community: Growth doesn’t happen in isolation. It takes time, feedback, and a consistent network that walks the journey alongside them.
This approach isn’t theoretical. It is being implemented—and it is working.
A Case Study in National Investment
For 20 years, the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation has demonstrated what long-term talent investment can look like. From Grade 6 to post-graduation, Scholarship, Fellowship, and Association Programme Participants are supported through entrepreneurial education, mentorship, seed funding, and access to a connected community.
To date, the Foundation has supported the launch of 340 ventures, with 6 having progressed to the enterprise stage. Collectively, these ventures have created approximately 3,000 jobs, generated over R2.1 billion in revenue, and positively impacted the lives of 1.5 million individuals. Yet, beyond these numbers, the true measure of our impact lies in the entrepreneurs who persevere building, experimenting, and creating lasting change. This impact is further amplified as entrepreneurial ecosystems take root and grow through consistent, long-term support.
From Commemoration to Commitment
Youth Day asks us to remember where we have come from, but it also asks us to take responsibility for where we are going. Symbolic gestures are not enough. We must build environments where young people are not simply waiting to be hired but are equipped to create meaningful work.
This article challenged the myth of the self-made entrepreneur and pointed to a deeper truth: talent is shaped. The opportunity to nurture that talent isn’t scarce, it’s often inaccessible. At Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, we’ve spent two decades proving that with the right support, potential transforms into progress.
The second part of this series continues the conversation. It explores what a full entrepreneurial pipeline looks like in practice—from early selection to post-university support—and how this long-term model offers a national playbook for scaling talent at every level.
If entrepreneurial talent is built, not born, then the next question becomes: how do we start building at scale?
Part Two: The Long Game will explore that answer.
