Since he was a teenager, John Paul Anderson has been an entrepreneur, starting a magazine at the age of 16. That journey as an entrepreneur has helped him to work with several multinational companies, develop websites and help businesses to keep ahead of the curve even during the pandemic.
Now, at 25, with multiple businesses and an e-book to his name, Anderson, who was born in Jamaica, is showing that the next generation of entrepreneurs is ready to take its place in the business world.
The next generation
"Now is the right time and the right opportunity to include the next generation in this wave of new ideas, technical development and innovation," Anderson told Business Day in an interview. "We have the energy and the passion."
Anderson said his experiences as an entrepreneur – owning six businesses, from a cookie-dough shop to social-media marketing and web-page development – has taken him to many places, but as he continues to move upward, he is seeing fewer and fewer people from his generation, which has the ideas and energy to take businesses and economies on the whole to the next level
“A lot of what I did was supposed to challenge the climate of business,” he said. “I believe I have a responsibility to influence people to do the same. A lot of people may not know that what I have been experiencing as an entrepreneur can happen and is happening for many, and it could happen for anyone.”
Anderson created the Caribbean Tech Talent Pool to deal with that issue. He said the talent pool, which is basically a WhatsApp group that connects talent to businesses, teaches both the younger generation of tech-savvy independent contractors and businesses looking to advance how each other works, through connecting one to the other.
“I am trying to build a talent pool that could be recruited as they are, without having to change them.”
His other venture to encourage the younger generation of businessmen and entrepreneurs comes in his book. You Deserve Success reinforces the idea that everyone should be ok with being successful.
“People have said to me 'Why are you dressed so nice?' or 'Why are you working so hard?' and I would say, 'Why not?'”
He said the book focuses on three areas that break down the mindset for success.
“I started with exploring how to accept who you are and how to get real with current realities of your life, sort of an internal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis.
"Then I broke down how not to be afraid to put yourself out there – to be a star.”
“Finally I looked at moving on. I talk about how to move to the next idea, which is constantly going to change.
“Success is like a ladder – it keeps taking you upward.”
Turning pain points to profits
Anderson had a huge dream of being an entrepreneur from day one, he said. But his business ventures have always come out of a need or a desire to address a certain pain point that he either experien
