Gen Z’s shift away from traditional office jobs has less to do with wanting to avoid work than with a re-evaluation of risk, reward and lifestyle. Facing an unpredictable economy, this generation is trading corporate ladders for business ownership, building paths to economic independence.
It was the final day of a 10-day, door-knocking odyssey through the mountain villages of southwestern China when Anson Sik, 25, and Edson Bichon, 27, caught the break that would define their fledgling company.
The pair were in Chuxiong, in the central part of China’s Yunnan province, after spending a week and a half chasing vague WeChat coordinates and half-remembered addresses, looking for garage wineries where natural wines were produced at elevations that left them gasping.
On that last evening, a producer invited them to a harvest dinner. Around the table sat some of the most seasoned names in China’s wine trade – people who had been importing the drink for decades.
“We were telling them about our idea, and they were so excited,” Bichon says. “They said they had never heard anyone doing wine this way.
“We were just two kids with no experience. But sometimes that’s exactly what it takes.”
