Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a special form of leadership, or better yet if an entrepreneur wants to be successful, he/she had better excel in leadership. I often ask my students if they can become the CEO of a company upon graduation or for that matter while taking my class. The answer is yes if they are an entrepreneur and start their own business. Entrepreneurship is special because it is an opportunity to get to the top of an organization based strictly on ones own merits.
I believe that entrepreneurship is very special because it is where for the most part innovation takes place, large companies are loaded with layers of bureaucracy that stifle creativity. With the advent of the PC and Internet entrepreneurship has received a huge boost, there are many examples starting with Bill Gates and his partner George Allen, Google, and more recently MySpace,YouTube and Facebook.
Its’ contribution to the economy is significant. Since the ’80 small companies (less than 500 employees) have created 34 million new jobs while the Fortune 500 companies have lost 5 million jobs. Perhaps more impressive is the fact that small companies provide 75% of the jobs in our country.
It is also so very important because it is good for the human spirit and mind because it provides a person with the “freedom” to think as you please and implement your ideas, “do your thing”. As long as you can pay your mortgage, meet payroll, and your employees are happy, you are “right”. It doesn’t matter if someone else thinks that you are wrong or they can do it better. Or better yet if you were working for them they would force you to do it “their” way.
Entrepreneurship also provides the “freedom” to be creative. I have always wanted to be an artist, to be able to create something special. I can draw, sing but have never been able to do it well enough to paint something beautiful, sing well enough to earn a living doing it or write a song worth listening to. Entrepreneurship has been the outlet for my creative spirit. I have been able to create programs, products that people pay their hard earned money for, companies, and a work place environment that allowed our people to learn, express themselves freely and openly, grow, participate in our cooperative effort, share in our success and prosper.