“Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create.” – Calvin Coolidge
Some economists will tell you that the wealth and living standards we enjoy today (and take for granted) happened because of a shift in social attitudes. There was actually a time in history when most people regarded merchants, inventors, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs with distrust and contempt. Thankfully, most rational people view this group with dignity and prestige. However, entrepreneurs today are increasingly viewed as less than heroes.
Entrepreneurs are, in fact, heroic figures. Their hard work and accomplishments are actually worth celebrating. In fact, most of the world is better off today because entrepreneurs were willing to attempt what others thought they knew couldn’t be done.
Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Benjamin Franklin, John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison all dreamed, worked and persisted in the face of adversity. Their entrepreneurial visions extend beyond their existing horizons. One could argue their ideas, inventions, products transformed their generation’s dreams into the next generation’s necessities. Before January 9, 2007, when Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, we didn’t know we needed a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod, camera and web-browsing capabilities, among other features.
According to the authors and scholars at the Foundation for Economic Freedom, “Societies are shaped by the ideals they embrace. A society that embraces entrepreneurship creates more jobs, produces more wealth, and allows individuals to exercise their creative talents. Cultures that value ambition, honesty, integrity, courage, productivity, long-term planning, and individual responsibility tend to create more economic growth and individual well-being than those who do not.”
In a fascinating YouTube video titled, Prosperity Paradox, Clayton Christensen and Efosa Ojomo, BYU Strategy Professional Conference 2018, Christensen and Ojomo reveal the limits of common economic development models, that tend to be top-down efforts, and offer a new framework for economic growth based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation.
Christensen is the late Harvard Business School professor who coined the phrase, Disruptive Innovation. This describes a process by which a product or service initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market—typically by being less expensive and more accessible—and then moves upmarket, eventually displacing established competitors. Ojomo leads the Global Prosperity research group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a think tank based in Boston and Silicon Valley.
A couple of years ago Christensen and Ojomo published the book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. In a Wall Street Journal review of The Prosperity Paradox, Rupert Darwall said: "The authors return the entrepreneur and innovation to the center stage of economic development and prosperity."
Their YouTube video presentation reveals how two brothers, entrepreneurs in Nigeria, created a noodle factory that made cheap meals available (about 20 cents each) and helped lift thousands in their community out of poverty, poor health, crime and a meager education.
Small business, already the most important source of innovative activity and new job opportunities in the world, can play an even more important role when the government eases restrictions on entrepreneurial incentives. Some may criticize my romanticizing entrepreneurs. However, societies are shaped by the ideals entrepreneurs embrace. If one of my children or grandchildren desired to emulate an entrepreneur who heroically struggled in uncharted territory and helped change the world for the better, I would be proud.
Sources Cited
https://courses.fee.org/courses/take/economics-in-one-day/texts/215691-culture-and-values
https://fee.org/articles/the-entrepreneur-on-the-heroic-journey/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/steve-jobs-debuts-the-iphone
https://fee.org/articles/small-business-and-entrepreneurship/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQBccrVKoQ
