Ajit Balakrishnan had emphatically stated at an event recently that the next internet billionaire would be a 22 year old with crazy ideas etc etc and not the ‘old’ men that digital media currently has.
When he had stated this I was 24 and today as I turn 25 Im pondering (forgive me for being philosophical) on my last 5 years in digital media industry and what Ive learnt from it. Also this post is my attempt to answer the young vs old debate in this space. Id like to believe at 25 im niether young (coz youth is considered as 13-24) and niether old i.e. (40+ year olds) so I may just have a middle path and may be ill be able to talk from both sides. (Mind you this is my humble attempt 
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The advantages of being Young in Digital Media
The advantages of being young are many.. I started when I was 20 and I could work non stop for days putting in 16-18 hours each day learning, absorbing, applying, discovering and doing a lot more than anyone else. Ive also had the good fortune of working with some of the finest minds who belonged to 19-20 year olds and the speed of thinking, doing and creativity in them was just mind boggling. I looked at them and then I looked at the ‘uncles’ I met at IAMAI events and wondered to myself.. What do these uncles know that these kids dont?
Honestly I continue to meet kids who make me marvel at their ability to execute and do it well each time. My last hire is a 19 year old who does everything from web development to content writing to video editing and all at a very high standard! And yes he has been hired at a very reasonable package.
But there is something that youth doesn’t possess as well.. I have realised this more and more as I interacted more with the uncle crowd in Digital media and learnt what makes them tick..
Advantages of Experience in Digital Media
While youth is great at doing things experience is great at getting it done! But more often than not they get someone else to do it 
Doing vs Delegation. Ive also felt that experienced folks are more businessmen than digital enthusiasts (which also could be attributed to the fact that they haven’t grown up with digital media).
Ive seen business skills, team building skills, people skills and man management skills to be of the highest quality in experienced folks. Also I see a keen sense of business while young folks lack that.
In Summary..
Id probably look at youth for product ideas, execution on social media, creative ideas etc, This is because thats what they have grown up with i.e. they are the most heavy users of digital products,
Id probably look at the experienced folk for processes, business models, business sense, delegation, organisation structure and top deal negotiations. This is because experience helps in these matters and no matter how sharp you are as a young kid your chances of screwing the above up vs getting it right are more.
Lastly.. Im 25 and when i was 20.. Id thought (like any other 20 year old) that Id be a billionaire in 1 year! yes yes.. You can laugh at me Its almost half a decade and Im no where close.. But Ive learnt an important lesson.. Its not how fast you run.. But how far you go that matters.. This I feel is a lesson all of us should remember when we sell fraudulent clicks, increase false page views, copy paste content and in general take a short cut in digital media to get things done faster than getting them done right! Ive done some myself in the past and I continue to regret them,,
Hoping my birthday rant didn’t get too philosophical Wrote it from the heart. Hope you guys liked it! Besides for happy birthday.. Interesting comments are welcome (try avoiding abuses 
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Well dude, you are no different than any ambitious dude, that’s typical ..
At the end of the day, it does not matter you do and what you make, do you have fun doing it and did you make life easy for the people around you !! You seem to hit the bulls-eye on both of those, so you are a billionaire ..
Happy Birthday !!
Thanks a ton @doesitmatter – You made my day
and I whole heartedly agree
Very Nice Post….
In my opinion young Web-preneurs mostly wants to get rich fast but thinks less about business planning and execution(as correctly pointed by you).They waste time in small jobs for too long as they are used to easy money which ultimately leads to deterioration of their dreams of becoming big.
They also suffer from ‘Follow the herd’ syndrome and enters into new age industry thinking they could be Zuckerberg’s of tomorrow.This ultimately is what hinders today’s youth in gaining success.
Hey, what’s your e-mail address, too lazy to browse the site …
you can mail me on rajiv(at)watblog.com
Well I dont have much to say but, you are the man I keep telling everyone to keep a watch on, I am sure you are upto something keeping in mind you are 25 and already such a young turk
@Raghav, “follow the herd” is really bad way to classify the ambition. I am pretty sure you and I pretty much “followed the herd” by choosing our professions, b/c it has proven to be best success rate. As per being next Zuckerberg, you can’t blame anybody trying anything to become that … At the end of the day, one man, one app is not the solution for the world, when these guys try something, the basic thing is (whether they can express it or not) they want to give their own spin on that particular idea. Just like iPhone, at the end of the day it’s a phone, they gave a spin of “Multi Touch” which we all love it.
If Steve Jobs had thought there millions of mobile phone makers and I don’t want to follow the herd, we would never get iPhone
Happy Birthday !
It’s so true .. it doesn’t matter how fast you run; but how far you go .. that’s all that matters at the end of day.
So what if you aren’t a millionaire at 25 – you’ve got your whole life ahead of you to become a billionaire (really millionaires are so passe now hehe)
You should be proud of your accomplishments so far; I don’t even know you and I am proud of you ! We must discuss business sometime. I could learn a lot from ya (and I’m older too hehe – actually wait – I’m only 28 years young!)
Happy Birthday Rajiv !!! May your future be better than the Best days of your past. And sincierly wish you become a billionaire in real monetary terms.
Now on a serious note i am 32 turning 33 soon and have started delving into the Social Media scene recently.So, i am also on the middle path. A slow adapter of Digital Media but a keen technology entusiast & trend follower.I first created my email account some twelve years back the first day i had a hands on experience of the Internet.Digital Media is miles ahead now. So the young are early adapters these days.My friends nephew who is about 6 years old has a Facebook account and plays Farmville on it.But the old are the ones who can vision the trends and manage it better to monetize it, with all the experience of facing the ups and downs, highs and lows and right and wrong’s. Technology is one part, Leveraging it is the other part.Developing is one part putting it to use is the other part.The young is spontaneous first orkut, then facebook, recently twitter and now Buzz. The old are more loyal and balanced.They are more focussed on Needs than Wants unlike the young.
There is always someone younger than you and someone older than you. Do what you want to do and you’ll find that to be the perfect age.
Sermonizing over
Happy Birthday!
Hey Rajiv
Happy Birthday and have a great year ahead !
That’s very nice article though philosophical indeed but thoughtful insight over digital media in India, although I am not started my own company or web entity yet, but experienced many thing in my 5 years of experience of internet, web & digital media.
I could say that not even 10% of web/ internet companies in India (atleast in north-India) care about such things like creativity, new things, social media integration at par with US/Europe or even Israel. Irrelevant people who have nothing to do with Internet & allied technologies are on top of strategy making bodies including the big brands.
The question of new/old age people probably related to this scenario bcoz the web/ social media hype created just 5-6 years ago are not yet reached to their damn ears.
..and yes – wishing you a very happy birthday and bright future !
Kudos
Nice article rajiv ! didnt know u were so young
grt going man ! i liked your balanced perspective…
I’m 20 and your post have really inpired me……and allthe best hope you bcom a billnre very soon.