Entrepreneurship today
by Jerry Mitchell - Jerry R Mitchell's Blog
August 27th, 2014 at 9:30pm
Think of America and how our freedoms which most take for granted have created an entrepreneurial culture that allows us to become the world leader in creating new technologies that completely change the world market place.
Far too many non-entrepreneurs believe that business plans that include market research coupled with those hockey stick financial projections are what entrepreneurship is all about.
I have discovered through observing and participating as an entrepreneur that programs, seminars, and universities that teach entrepreneurship are very different then what occurs in the real world.
The programs I see today being called events for entrepreneurs are really designed for the audiences rather than the entrepreneurs. The audience participation to me is always interesting when people who have never started their own business tell the entrepreneur how to build their business.
To me it’s a show for the audience where they get to demonstrate how smart they are by the questions they ask. If they were as smart as the presenting entrepreneur wouldn’t they start their own company?
To me entrepreneurship is about solving real problems by pushing the current limitations of
thinking. For its entrepreneurs that spark our imaginations through their innovation and initiative and resourcefulness. The y have the
courage to do what most can only wish they had the same courage that would allow them to change their own lives.
As the current world financial meltdown continues governments talk of assisting entrepreneurs through legislation. So far those efforts have only stifled entrepreneurs because the laws created to assist entrepreneurs really prevent the growth of their businesses.
When I was much younger my family and friends thought of me as one of those
crazy people called entrepreneurs. When I left corporate America in 1969 where I was earning a substantial income as a salesman selling computers everyone but my bride questioned my sanity.
To my generation we find it rewarding that today entrepreneurs have become the people expected to drive innovation and create the jobs so needed in today’s world.Today’s educators are still trying to create a formula that makes no distinction between entrepreneurship and small business management. I believe that by following this path they have overlooked what it really takes to start and successfully grow a business.
If all these entrepreneur programs were measured for their accomplishments I
believe they would be called failures. For thousands of students take these
expensive courses and after graduation never use their education to start
their own company.
Today’s entrepreneur with little more than a cell phone and a laptop and a few credit cards are what’s changing our world. Unlike my generation who had to challenge the corporate giants they are wiser and do not take on the corporate giants directly but exploit their weaknesses and create business using this information.