75 Reasons to Be Glad You're an American Entrepreneur Right Now

 

What's good, though, is that if your business has that kind of story, people really want to hear it. In my company, for instance, we've always been trying to prove a real business model, and now people want to hear what we've really done--the ups and downs, the pitfalls, what we've learned. We lay it out. It's real. And there's a whole new appreciation for that kind of approach. Which makes all the difference."

Joseph E. Fergus, CEO, COMTek, Chantilly, Va.

Number 33

Because no one is against "the ownership society" anymore. Republican or Democrat, right wing or left, the term has become just a part of the language--and now everyone in government feels pressure to get behind it. Putting everyone, from all sides, on the side that's yours.

Number 34

The rise of entrepreneurship education. Classes proliferate. Programs proliferate. Demand for teaching exceeds the supply of teachers. At the university level, funded chairs in entrepreneurship are being established faster than they can be filled.

Number 35

Because a brilliant program called the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship--the brainchild of onetime schoolteacher Steve Mariotti 20 years ago--has thrived. Businesses are being built by kids. More than 100,000 of them.

Number 36

Money. Venture funding is up, angel investing is up, private equity backing is more available, even big corporations are putting more resources into VC-like research and development programs. There's capital out there. It needs you.

Number 37

EBay--which has provided millions of people with a real-time, honest-money correspondence course in market economics. (And made it fun.)

Number 38

jetBlue.

Number 39

StartupNation, a weekly syndicated radio show for entrepreneurs.

Number 40

Because entrepreneurship is a way out, a way through. In processing interviews in New York City Family Court, kids still say they want most to be NBA basketball players--but the second most commonly stated goal is "to be an entrepreneur."

Number 41

Because one-to-one marketing still works better for small businesses than big ones.

Number 42

Formal peer groups, too. The Entrepreneurs' Organization (which was the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization before changing its name in June) now boasts 550,000 members in 120 chapters in 40 countries.

Number 43

Because it's still easier to balance your life when you own a successful business. And more people than ever wish they could arrange that balance for themselves.

Number 44

Because in the '70s you could differentiate and build a business by inventing something that big companies weren't brave enough or visionary enough to try (Apple Computer). And you still can.

Number 45

Because in the '80s you could differentiate and build a business by enriching your products and services with information, establishing a bond with customers no corporate competitor could match (Smith & Hawken, The Body Shop, Ben & Jerry's). And you still can.

Number 46

Because in the '90s you could differentiate and build a business by blowing up and reinventing sales channels in ways established corporations will never be flexible enough--or structurally divorced enough from the status quo--to attempt (Dell, Amazon). And you still can.

Number 47

Because in every decade you could differentiate and build a business by running an organization in strange new ways, unleashing yourself and your people by sharing equity or opening the books, or putting authority in the lowest hands, or experimenting with heroically unconventional environments, or leveraging teams, networks, and alternative workstyles, or by embracing any of a hundred other managerial strategies of unexpected provenance. And big-company managers, unlike you, still can't.

Number 48

Because, bizarrely, even Simon Cowell has spotted the bandwagon. In development is The Million Dollar Idea, a reality TV program by the American Idol producer, in which nine contestants will each get $50,000 in seed capital to launch a venture, with the winner being decided by America's vote.

 PREV  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5  NEXT 

Read more:

  • How Lincoln Became A Great Leader
  • How to Be Liked at Work (or Anywhere)
  • Cargo Firms Offering Free Shipping

    • Sign-up for our Leadership and Managing Newsletter