As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day 232 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we would be wise to recall our nation’s entrepreneurial heritage. After all, we are not only a nation of patriots and immigrants, but also one of shopkeepers and entrepreneurs.
There is much talk these days about entrepreneurship. “At any given time,” according to Carl Schramm, president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, “15 percent of the population is running their own companies. These entrepreneurs, people who now create more than half the new jobs in America, are defining the new economy not just here but around the world. We now live in the most entrepreneurial time in history. In fact, we could call the current era the age of entrepreneurial capitalism.”
According to the massive Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, “the creation of a new firm is more widespread than the creation of a new household or the birth of a baby.” A simple search for the word “entrepreneur” on Google today yields nearly 45 million hits.
Today’s younger generations have come of age amid a rising tide of entrepreneurship. Think Google, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, Skype, Facebook, instant messaging, bioengineering, nanotechnology, “green-gineering” and more.
In recent decades, we also have seen the exploding phenomenon of “social entrepreneurship,” with the principles and practices of entrepreneurship applied in the nonprofit sector. Examples abound, from Bill Drayton (Ashoka) and Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank and microlending) to Echoing Green, the Skoll Foundation, Endeavor and various forms of “venture philanthropy.”
Fortunately for us, entrepreneurship is ingrained in our nation’s very DNA. Take Benjamin Franklin, for example. Most people think of him as a Renaissance man because of his prolific accomplishments and interests.
After all, he was an author, printer, politician, diplomat, statesman, philosopher, abolitionist, composer, humorist, civic leader, public servant, scientist, inventor and national hero.
He helped craft the Declaration of Independence and signed the Constitution. He invented the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, the glass harmonica and the flexible urinary catheter. He was also one of the primary “inventors” of the idea of an American nation. All this from a man who had little formal schooling.
As a young man, he worked hard and borrowed money to set himself up in the printing business, becoming an apprentice to his brother James at age 12. Entrepreneur? Check. He ran a bookstore and later set up a printing house of his own and became the publisher of the leading newspaper in the Colonies, the Pennsylvania Gazette. He was also a consummate networker and an early practitioner of franchising.
Equally importantly, Franklin was a “social entrepreneur.” At age 21, he created the Junto, a civic-minded “club of mutual improvement” and social progress meeting on Friday evenings that also served as an incubator of organizations and movements.
With colleagues, Franklin created a library, hospital and insurance program. He was founder of the American Philosophical Society and also created one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America.
Franklin was also what we call a “life entrepreneur.” Rather than creating an innovative business (or social) enterprise, a life entrepreneur creates a life of significance through opportunity recognition, innovation and action.
Life entrepreneurs use the same tools a business or social entrepreneur uses to build a new enterprise, creatively applying the best of those industrious start-up practices toward building a better life.
History reveals that Franklin’s whole life comprised not only launching new enterprises in service of his community and country, but also committing himself to self-improvement. Think of all his adages and maxims that still inspire and instruct us to this day:
“God helps them that help themselves.”
“Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.”
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
As we honor our nation this Fourth of July, let’s honor the entrepreneurial spirit of the man who so brilliantly embodied what our nation has been and can be, providing a vital example for why we should strive to summon our better angels and do good deeds.
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