Why Entrepreneurs Matter

Why Entrepreneurs Matter

I had to smile during last week’s State of the Union address when the President mentioned “the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses. But the government can create the conditions necessary for businesses to expand and hire more workers.”

This is the same message I’ve been preaching for years. The road to prosperity for individuals, and for the nation overall, depends on the willingness of individuals to put some of their own money on the table and do the hard work of planning and starting a business.

In the U.S., if you can think up a better product, be it a better mousetrap or an iPad, you are free to create a business to make and sell that product, and to reap the financial rewards of those efforts.

The contrast to starting a business in America jumped off the page when I read Landon Thomas’ article in the Sunday New York Times on the difficulties of starting a business in Greece. In Greece, rather than allowing the entrepreneur to identify a need and create a business to fill that need, there is often the extra step of having to convince some government official to let you have a license for that business, or to change some law to allow you to sell that product at all. As would be expected, the red tape element greatly discourages innovation and entrepreneurship.

Is it any wonder that America is still the land of opportunity for entrepreneurs. I have a feeling that before too long, a new generation of entrepreneurs, perhaps inspired by the President’s speech, perhaps driven by the necessity of earning a living after a corporate downsizing or outsourcing, will continue the process of creating businesses that once again grow the economy. And they will make some money in the process.