Items related to The Entrepreneur: The Way Back for the U.S. Economy
"It is the government's duty to provide for the general welfare . . . "FALSE
"The growing gap between the rich and the poor proves that capitalism has failed . . . "FALSE
"The government has the authority to redistribute wealth through regulations and taxes . . . "FALSE
"All men are created equal. "But not all taxpayers
Progressives, or Retrogressives, as #1 "New York Times "bestselling author Robert Ringer calls those on the far left who are, in reality, against progress, believe in an all-powerful central government that has the authority to meddle in both the economy and in the lives of individual citizens. Retrogressives naively believe that the government has a moral obligation to "help" those in need, but nowhere in the Constitution is there an enumerated power to that effect.
In a Retrogressive utopia, life is risk free for everyone. But a government that prevents its citizens from failing actually prohibits them from succeeding. So-called social programs, such as food stamps, the minimum wage, and draconian taxes are designed to redistribute wealth but are lethal to the very people whose success is most critical to this nation's prosperity: Entrepreneurs.
In this provocative new book, Ringer examines what it takes for these unsung heroes to succeed in an environment that is increasingly hostile toward small businesses. Perhaps the most maligned and beleaguered individuals in the United States, Entrepreneurs are the easiest targets for the government's insatiable appetite to exercise control over the economy. Yet, left alone to do what they do best, Entrepreneurs are able to innovate better products and services than the government could ever hope to provide; create jobs; reinvest much of their profits into expanding their businesses; and, as a result, grow the economy, and thereby improve the lives of millions of people through the self-regulating "invisible hand" of the marketplace.
The time has come for Americans to tell politicians they don't want any more quick fixes. What we need is for government to get out of the way and allow the Entrepreneur to move our country forward.
"The growing gap between the rich and the poor proves that capitalism has failed . . . "FALSE
"The government has the authority to redistribute wealth through regulations and taxes . . . "FALSE
"All men are created equal. "But not all taxpayers
Progressives, or Retrogressives, as #1 "New York Times "bestselling author Robert Ringer calls those on the far left who are, in reality, against progress, believe in an all-powerful central government that has the authority to meddle in both the economy and in the lives of individual citizens. Retrogressives naively believe that the government has a moral obligation to "help" those in need, but nowhere in the Constitution is there an enumerated power to that effect.
In a Retrogressive utopia, life is risk free for everyone. But a government that prevents its citizens from failing actually prohibits them from succeeding. So-called social programs, such as food stamps, the minimum wage, and draconian taxes are designed to redistribute wealth but are lethal to the very people whose success is most critical to this nation's prosperity: Entrepreneurs.
In this provocative new book, Ringer examines what it takes for these unsung heroes to succeed in an environment that is increasingly hostile toward small businesses. Perhaps the most maligned and beleaguered individuals in the United States, Entrepreneurs are the easiest targets for the government's insatiable appetite to exercise control over the economy. Yet, left alone to do what they do best, Entrepreneurs are able to innovate better products and services than the government could ever hope to provide; create jobs; reinvest much of their profits into expanding their businesses; and, as a result, grow the economy, and thereby improve the lives of millions of people through the self-regulating "invisible hand" of the marketplace.
The time has come for Americans to tell politicians they don't want any more quick fixes. What we need is for government to get out of the way and allow the Entrepreneur to move our country forward.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
After a string of three consecutive #1 bestsellers in the late seventies (two of which have been listed by The New York Times among the fifteen bestselling motivational books of all time), Robert Ringer became a prominent voice for liberty throughout America. Today, he hosts the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which serves as a public-education platform for many of today’s greatest economic and political thinkers. He also writes the thought-provoking, pro-liberty e-letter A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World, in which he shares his insights into life, unique ideas, and strategies for personal development, and analyses of today’s economic, sociological, and political environment from a free-market point of view. Visit him at RobertRinger.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
1.
THE ENTREPRENEUR AS HERO
Remember the infamous Iran-hostage “crisis” that ended after 444 days on January 20, 1981? With Jimmy Carter spending more than a year trying to figure out how to tie his shoelaces, the Evil Eye of Iran—Ayatollah Khomeini—had things pretty much his way.
But twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, Khomeini apparently started envisioning a nuclear cloud over Iran for the next four hundred years and decided to release the hostages. Like every other American, I was happy for both the hostages and their families.
Nevertheless, when the media started portraying them as heroes and New York held a ticker tape parade for them, I was puzzled. You happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you’re hailed as a hero? Really?
Heroes are people who accomplish extraordinary feats under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, such as the firefighters who marched into the World Trade Center towers, in an attempt to save lives, while everyone else was scurrying to get out.
But there’s another kind of hero—one who makes a living accomplishing extraordinary feats under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, day in and day out. The hero I’m referring to is an individualist known to all as the Entrepreneur.
The central focus of this book is twofold: (1) to explain what it takes for an Entrepreneur to succeed and (2) to demonstrate how government meddling in the economy gets in the way of his creating products and services that people want—at the lowest possible prices.
Why the Entrepreneur to the exclusion of all others, such as employees, who also contribute to the growth of the economy? Because the Entrepreneur is perhaps the most misunderstood and underappreciated human being on earth.
Entrepreneurs come in all sizes, shapes, colors, genders, and ethnicities. Steve Wynn (gambling resort hotels), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and, of course, Donald Trump are billionaires, but their lofty level of success doesn’t strip them of their hero status as Entrepreneurs. When it comes to entrepreneurship, Wynn, Schultz, and Trump just happen to be size extra-large. Thus, while virtually all small businesspeople are Entrepreneurs, not all Entrepreneurs are small businesspeople.
However, when I use the term Entrepreneur in this book, unless otherwise stated I am referring primarily to the small-to-medium-sized Entrepreneur whose day-to-day eating habits are directly tied to what he produces. Unlike the salaried worker, the Entrepreneur has no safety net. He gets results or he starves.
It is not surprising that so many of our heroic Founding Fathers were Entrepreneurs. Perhaps the two most famous examples are George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They are also good examples of just how far apart the results of individual Entrepreneurs can be. Though they were both farmers, Washington was one of the richest men in America, while Jefferson struggled financially throughout his life and died broke. But Jefferson’s financial difficulties never dampened his enthusiasm for entrepreneurial pursuits, which resulted not only in the building of his beloved Monticello estate, but also in the establishment of one of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, the University of Virginia.
Being an Entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. It takes a special combination of character traits: self-confidence, courage, boldness, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and persistence, to name a few of the more important ones. The Entrepreneur thrives on challenges and risk-taking. He is willing to venture outside the conventional-wisdom box, and his success is critical to his nation’s prosperity.
Before I go further, let me make it clear that nothing in this book is meant to detract from the economic contributions of hundreds of millions of employees throughout the world who put in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Choosing to be an employee rather than an Entrepreneur is just another route to getting what you want in life.
As a general rule, an employee has less upside potential and more security than the Entrepreneur, while the Entrepreneur, at least in theory, has unlimited upside potential but little, if any, security. Where people get into trouble is when they want it all—the biggest upside potential coupled with rock-solid security. The nature of the marketplace—at least on planet Earth—makes these two objectives totally incompatible.
I would also like to point out that employees are not “associates.” When the Walmarts of the world call their employees “associates,” it is just another of the thousands of politically correct, Retrogressive ploys used to move us toward a utopian society where everyone is equal.
Personally, I find this practice insulting to the intelligence of employees. During my short stints as an employee in my younger years, I knew I was an employee, and I was quite happy to be one. I wasn’t interested in being humored with a politically correct title. My focus was on doing the best job I could do in the hopes of getting a pay raise. Please, Retrogressives, spare us the “associate” stuff.
But here’s the nice thing about living in a free country. (Hopefully, you’re old enough to remember living in a free country.) A person can start out as an employee—and most people do—then, when he believes he’s ready, he can choose to leave his job and go into business for himself. The advantage in doing this is that when he leaves, he takes with him all the knowledge and skills he accumulated while being paid to do his job.
Striking out on one’s own is a risk-reward choice, and, in a free society, it’s a choice that’s open to everyone. Under capitalism, it’s possible for anyone to start as a low-level employee and rise to the top through his own efforts. Some people start out as employees, strike out on their own, fail, and return to the job market—either temporarily or for life. Others, like Wynn and Schultz, go on to great entrepreneurial success—even becoming billionaires.
The Ticket Scalper
One of my favorite Entrepreneurs is the ticket scalper. He doesn’t need an office, employees, a formal education, or specialized skills. His main assets are his willingness to hustle and take risks. He epitomizes what the free market is all about. He is living proof that a black market is nothing more than the free market asserting itself in the face of government oppression.
The ticket scalper acquires his inventory at the lowest possible prices, then sells at the highest prices the market will bear. If a ticket scalper works hard at his craft and is blessed with a bit of good luck, he can make a substantial amount of money. But when myriad factors go against him (weather, for example), he can end up going home with a handful of worthless tickets. Thus, the ticket scalper’s success is far from guaranteed. His is the risk-taking life of the Entrepreneur.
One other point worth mentioning about ticket scalpers: A majority of them are African-Americans. That’s scary, right? I mean, what would you do if one of those tough-looking dudes refused to give you the correct change or even sold you counterfeit tickets? No wonder ticket scalping is technically illegal outside virtually all stadiums and arenas.
To the Retrogressive who believes that government regulation is necessary to protect consumers from ticket scalpers—primarily black ticket scalpers—I have bad news for you. In the scores of times I have dealt with ticket scalpers over the years, I have never been cheated out of a dime. Not even once.
In fact, in every case I can think of—no matter how heated the haggling became—once our transaction was completed, the ticket scalper has never failed to cheerfully say something to me like “Enjoy the game.”
A ticket scalper knows that if he isn’t totally honest in his dealings with the public, he will soon become an outcast among his peers. Like insurance companies and banks, ticket scalpers have to protect the reputation of their industry. Free-market self-regulation beats government regulation every time. No exceptions.
The Street Performer
I recently returned from speaking at an investment conference in New Orleans. On the Sunday that the conference ended, my wife and I walked around the French Quarter and watched some of the street acts. What struck me was that the people who put on those acts, much like ticket scalpers, are engaged in unfettered capitalism—and most of them are black.
On one street corner we came upon a somewhat rotund, middle-aged woman by the name of Doreen Ketchens, who was alternately playing the clarinet and singing. Her talent at each was as good as any I have ever seen. Her rendition of “Stormy Weather” sent chills up my spine.
Listeners who were so inclined put money in her basket to show their appreciation. And as I watched cash flowing into the basket, it occurred to me that the perverted mind of the Retrogressive might see this as a degrading way to make a living. But I saw it as very dignified work, which was evidenced by Doreen’s proud demeanor. Plain and simple, Doreen Ketchens engages in free-market transactions with consenting adults. No government bureaucrats need intervene, thank you.
And she is just one of the many remarkably talented acrobats, comedians, singers, and musicians—most of them black—who prefer entrepreneurship in the French Quarter to government handouts as a way to get what they want out of life.
Isn’t it amazing how consenting adults are able to transact business with one another without government involvement? It boggles the imagination to think about how the marketplace would explode with economic activity and jobs if the government would just stop regulating, taxing, and giving people incentives not to work—in short, if the government would get the hell out of the way. I’m referring here to nothing less than a totally laissez-faire economy.
The truth is that the Retrogressive does not want blacks to be too well off. After all, what would he and his bureaucratic cronies do for a living if there were no more poverty? The black Entrepreneur is anathema to the far left.
The antithesis of the Entrepreneur is government employees, most of whom perform services that people do not want or that can be done better, and more efficiently, by the private sector.
Nevertheless, honesty compels me to be somewhat of an apologist for government employees. Most, I believe, are simply victims of the Retrogressive’s big-government trap. Weaned on the notion that government is inherently good, and that government services are necessary in order to implement certain vague notions of “fairness,” they truly believe they are engaged in the noblest of all professions: public service.
They do not realize that they are being used as pawns—voting pawns. As the Retrogressives in all three branches of government continue to mislead and obfuscate in an effort to decrease employment in the private sector and increase government employment, they get ever closer to their decades-long goal of securing a foolproof, permanent majority of voters—which translates into perpetual power.
The True Entrepreneur
When I use the term Entrepreneur, I am referring to a true entrepreneur—an entrepreneur who does his best to avoid government favors and financial largesse to advance his agenda. I say does his best, because the cards are stacked in such a way as to force everyone to rely on government to one extent or another.
A perfect example of this is roads and highways. Since virtually all roads and highways are government owned, even the most staunch libertarian has no choice but to use them. A Retrogressive would therefore take great delight in calling such a person a hypocrite. This is an old trick used by the “gotcha” Retrogressive: Have the government take control of the postal service, healthcare, etc.—then wave aside the libertarian-centered conservative as a hypocrite for using these government-provided services.
Yes, all Entrepreneurs use government-provided services at one time or another, but that doesn’t change the fact that, left alone to do what they do best, they grow the economy, provide jobs, and—through the “invisible hand of the marketplace”—improve the lives of millions of people whom they will never even meet. In fact, when it comes to jobs, anyone who watches the news knows that small-business owners create 75 percent of all new jobs in America. Take a look at these eye-opening statistics:
By themselves, the goods, services and technology produced by American small businesses make up the world’s third-largest economy, after the United States and Japan. Small companies represent 99 percent of all U.S. businesses and employ more than half of the American workforce. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration: Small businesses pay more than 44 percent of the nation’s private payroll. More than 50 percent of the U.S. private gross domestic product is generated by small business, and almost 97 percent of exporters are small businesses.1
America’s Entrepreneurs have managed to do all this on their own, relying as little as possible on the government.
Another thing that distinguishes the true Entrepreneur from the average individual who trades hours for dollars is that he tends to be impatient—especially when it comes to being slowed down.
I’ve come to grudgingly accept the fact that most people are urgency challenged. Which is why, in today’s world, the individual who displays a sense of urgency stands out like a thinking person at a Barack Obama rally. A lot of people take umbrage at this sense of urgency, because it gets in the way of their enjoying their favorite reality TV shows and weekend sports telethons. Folks who want things done sooner rather than later irritate them no end.
Why is sooner rather than later so important? Because every one of us has to deal with an irreplaceable, finite commodity known as time. The entrepreneurial mind gets this; the nonentrepreneurial mind does not. The Entrepreneur’s mind-set is: “Just get out of my way and I’ll do it myself!” The Entrepreneur doesn’t want to know what someone else is going to do. He wants to know what he’s done. He knows that spending hours each night kicking back and enjoying life may be a great way to reduce stress, but it does nothing to create wealth or jobs.
I can’t tell you how many deals I’ve closed, how many projects made it through the open window, because I took action one month sooner, one week sooner, or one day sooner. Even an hour—sometimes even a minute—can be the difference between success and failure. This makes urgency one of the many traits that make the Entrepreneur so invaluable to the wealth of a nation, a trait that sets him apart from the nine-to-fiver.
In the Preface to Stephen M. R. Covey’s book The Speed of Trust, his father, Stephen R. Covey (of Seven Habits fame), makes this remarkable statement: “My interactions with business leaders around the world have made it increasingly evident that ‘speed to market’ is now the ultimate competitive weapon.”
Just think about that for a moment—the ultimate competitive weapon is speed. The most important thing an Entrepreneur can do to win out over the competition is get his product to market fast.
The Entrepreneur instinctively knows—or learns quickly through experience—that it’s not how much money he makes, but how much money he makes in a given per...
THE ENTREPRENEUR AS HERO
Remember the infamous Iran-hostage “crisis” that ended after 444 days on January 20, 1981? With Jimmy Carter spending more than a year trying to figure out how to tie his shoelaces, the Evil Eye of Iran—Ayatollah Khomeini—had things pretty much his way.
But twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, Khomeini apparently started envisioning a nuclear cloud over Iran for the next four hundred years and decided to release the hostages. Like every other American, I was happy for both the hostages and their families.
Nevertheless, when the media started portraying them as heroes and New York held a ticker tape parade for them, I was puzzled. You happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you’re hailed as a hero? Really?
Heroes are people who accomplish extraordinary feats under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, such as the firefighters who marched into the World Trade Center towers, in an attempt to save lives, while everyone else was scurrying to get out.
But there’s another kind of hero—one who makes a living accomplishing extraordinary feats under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, day in and day out. The hero I’m referring to is an individualist known to all as the Entrepreneur.
The central focus of this book is twofold: (1) to explain what it takes for an Entrepreneur to succeed and (2) to demonstrate how government meddling in the economy gets in the way of his creating products and services that people want—at the lowest possible prices.
Why the Entrepreneur to the exclusion of all others, such as employees, who also contribute to the growth of the economy? Because the Entrepreneur is perhaps the most misunderstood and underappreciated human being on earth.
Entrepreneurs come in all sizes, shapes, colors, genders, and ethnicities. Steve Wynn (gambling resort hotels), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and, of course, Donald Trump are billionaires, but their lofty level of success doesn’t strip them of their hero status as Entrepreneurs. When it comes to entrepreneurship, Wynn, Schultz, and Trump just happen to be size extra-large. Thus, while virtually all small businesspeople are Entrepreneurs, not all Entrepreneurs are small businesspeople.
However, when I use the term Entrepreneur in this book, unless otherwise stated I am referring primarily to the small-to-medium-sized Entrepreneur whose day-to-day eating habits are directly tied to what he produces. Unlike the salaried worker, the Entrepreneur has no safety net. He gets results or he starves.
It is not surprising that so many of our heroic Founding Fathers were Entrepreneurs. Perhaps the two most famous examples are George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They are also good examples of just how far apart the results of individual Entrepreneurs can be. Though they were both farmers, Washington was one of the richest men in America, while Jefferson struggled financially throughout his life and died broke. But Jefferson’s financial difficulties never dampened his enthusiasm for entrepreneurial pursuits, which resulted not only in the building of his beloved Monticello estate, but also in the establishment of one of America’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, the University of Virginia.
Being an Entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. It takes a special combination of character traits: self-confidence, courage, boldness, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and persistence, to name a few of the more important ones. The Entrepreneur thrives on challenges and risk-taking. He is willing to venture outside the conventional-wisdom box, and his success is critical to his nation’s prosperity.
Before I go further, let me make it clear that nothing in this book is meant to detract from the economic contributions of hundreds of millions of employees throughout the world who put in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. Choosing to be an employee rather than an Entrepreneur is just another route to getting what you want in life.
As a general rule, an employee has less upside potential and more security than the Entrepreneur, while the Entrepreneur, at least in theory, has unlimited upside potential but little, if any, security. Where people get into trouble is when they want it all—the biggest upside potential coupled with rock-solid security. The nature of the marketplace—at least on planet Earth—makes these two objectives totally incompatible.
I would also like to point out that employees are not “associates.” When the Walmarts of the world call their employees “associates,” it is just another of the thousands of politically correct, Retrogressive ploys used to move us toward a utopian society where everyone is equal.
Personally, I find this practice insulting to the intelligence of employees. During my short stints as an employee in my younger years, I knew I was an employee, and I was quite happy to be one. I wasn’t interested in being humored with a politically correct title. My focus was on doing the best job I could do in the hopes of getting a pay raise. Please, Retrogressives, spare us the “associate” stuff.
But here’s the nice thing about living in a free country. (Hopefully, you’re old enough to remember living in a free country.) A person can start out as an employee—and most people do—then, when he believes he’s ready, he can choose to leave his job and go into business for himself. The advantage in doing this is that when he leaves, he takes with him all the knowledge and skills he accumulated while being paid to do his job.
Striking out on one’s own is a risk-reward choice, and, in a free society, it’s a choice that’s open to everyone. Under capitalism, it’s possible for anyone to start as a low-level employee and rise to the top through his own efforts. Some people start out as employees, strike out on their own, fail, and return to the job market—either temporarily or for life. Others, like Wynn and Schultz, go on to great entrepreneurial success—even becoming billionaires.
The Ticket Scalper
One of my favorite Entrepreneurs is the ticket scalper. He doesn’t need an office, employees, a formal education, or specialized skills. His main assets are his willingness to hustle and take risks. He epitomizes what the free market is all about. He is living proof that a black market is nothing more than the free market asserting itself in the face of government oppression.
The ticket scalper acquires his inventory at the lowest possible prices, then sells at the highest prices the market will bear. If a ticket scalper works hard at his craft and is blessed with a bit of good luck, he can make a substantial amount of money. But when myriad factors go against him (weather, for example), he can end up going home with a handful of worthless tickets. Thus, the ticket scalper’s success is far from guaranteed. His is the risk-taking life of the Entrepreneur.
One other point worth mentioning about ticket scalpers: A majority of them are African-Americans. That’s scary, right? I mean, what would you do if one of those tough-looking dudes refused to give you the correct change or even sold you counterfeit tickets? No wonder ticket scalping is technically illegal outside virtually all stadiums and arenas.
To the Retrogressive who believes that government regulation is necessary to protect consumers from ticket scalpers—primarily black ticket scalpers—I have bad news for you. In the scores of times I have dealt with ticket scalpers over the years, I have never been cheated out of a dime. Not even once.
In fact, in every case I can think of—no matter how heated the haggling became—once our transaction was completed, the ticket scalper has never failed to cheerfully say something to me like “Enjoy the game.”
A ticket scalper knows that if he isn’t totally honest in his dealings with the public, he will soon become an outcast among his peers. Like insurance companies and banks, ticket scalpers have to protect the reputation of their industry. Free-market self-regulation beats government regulation every time. No exceptions.
The Street Performer
I recently returned from speaking at an investment conference in New Orleans. On the Sunday that the conference ended, my wife and I walked around the French Quarter and watched some of the street acts. What struck me was that the people who put on those acts, much like ticket scalpers, are engaged in unfettered capitalism—and most of them are black.
On one street corner we came upon a somewhat rotund, middle-aged woman by the name of Doreen Ketchens, who was alternately playing the clarinet and singing. Her talent at each was as good as any I have ever seen. Her rendition of “Stormy Weather” sent chills up my spine.
Listeners who were so inclined put money in her basket to show their appreciation. And as I watched cash flowing into the basket, it occurred to me that the perverted mind of the Retrogressive might see this as a degrading way to make a living. But I saw it as very dignified work, which was evidenced by Doreen’s proud demeanor. Plain and simple, Doreen Ketchens engages in free-market transactions with consenting adults. No government bureaucrats need intervene, thank you.
And she is just one of the many remarkably talented acrobats, comedians, singers, and musicians—most of them black—who prefer entrepreneurship in the French Quarter to government handouts as a way to get what they want out of life.
Isn’t it amazing how consenting adults are able to transact business with one another without government involvement? It boggles the imagination to think about how the marketplace would explode with economic activity and jobs if the government would just stop regulating, taxing, and giving people incentives not to work—in short, if the government would get the hell out of the way. I’m referring here to nothing less than a totally laissez-faire economy.
The truth is that the Retrogressive does not want blacks to be too well off. After all, what would he and his bureaucratic cronies do for a living if there were no more poverty? The black Entrepreneur is anathema to the far left.
The antithesis of the Entrepreneur is government employees, most of whom perform services that people do not want or that can be done better, and more efficiently, by the private sector.
Nevertheless, honesty compels me to be somewhat of an apologist for government employees. Most, I believe, are simply victims of the Retrogressive’s big-government trap. Weaned on the notion that government is inherently good, and that government services are necessary in order to implement certain vague notions of “fairness,” they truly believe they are engaged in the noblest of all professions: public service.
They do not realize that they are being used as pawns—voting pawns. As the Retrogressives in all three branches of government continue to mislead and obfuscate in an effort to decrease employment in the private sector and increase government employment, they get ever closer to their decades-long goal of securing a foolproof, permanent majority of voters—which translates into perpetual power.
The True Entrepreneur
When I use the term Entrepreneur, I am referring to a true entrepreneur—an entrepreneur who does his best to avoid government favors and financial largesse to advance his agenda. I say does his best, because the cards are stacked in such a way as to force everyone to rely on government to one extent or another.
A perfect example of this is roads and highways. Since virtually all roads and highways are government owned, even the most staunch libertarian has no choice but to use them. A Retrogressive would therefore take great delight in calling such a person a hypocrite. This is an old trick used by the “gotcha” Retrogressive: Have the government take control of the postal service, healthcare, etc.—then wave aside the libertarian-centered conservative as a hypocrite for using these government-provided services.
Yes, all Entrepreneurs use government-provided services at one time or another, but that doesn’t change the fact that, left alone to do what they do best, they grow the economy, provide jobs, and—through the “invisible hand of the marketplace”—improve the lives of millions of people whom they will never even meet. In fact, when it comes to jobs, anyone who watches the news knows that small-business owners create 75 percent of all new jobs in America. Take a look at these eye-opening statistics:
By themselves, the goods, services and technology produced by American small businesses make up the world’s third-largest economy, after the United States and Japan. Small companies represent 99 percent of all U.S. businesses and employ more than half of the American workforce. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration: Small businesses pay more than 44 percent of the nation’s private payroll. More than 50 percent of the U.S. private gross domestic product is generated by small business, and almost 97 percent of exporters are small businesses.1
America’s Entrepreneurs have managed to do all this on their own, relying as little as possible on the government.
Another thing that distinguishes the true Entrepreneur from the average individual who trades hours for dollars is that he tends to be impatient—especially when it comes to being slowed down.
I’ve come to grudgingly accept the fact that most people are urgency challenged. Which is why, in today’s world, the individual who displays a sense of urgency stands out like a thinking person at a Barack Obama rally. A lot of people take umbrage at this sense of urgency, because it gets in the way of their enjoying their favorite reality TV shows and weekend sports telethons. Folks who want things done sooner rather than later irritate them no end.
Why is sooner rather than later so important? Because every one of us has to deal with an irreplaceable, finite commodity known as time. The entrepreneurial mind gets this; the nonentrepreneurial mind does not. The Entrepreneur’s mind-set is: “Just get out of my way and I’ll do it myself!” The Entrepreneur doesn’t want to know what someone else is going to do. He wants to know what he’s done. He knows that spending hours each night kicking back and enjoying life may be a great way to reduce stress, but it does nothing to create wealth or jobs.
I can’t tell you how many deals I’ve closed, how many projects made it through the open window, because I took action one month sooner, one week sooner, or one day sooner. Even an hour—sometimes even a minute—can be the difference between success and failure. This makes urgency one of the many traits that make the Entrepreneur so invaluable to the wealth of a nation, a trait that sets him apart from the nine-to-fiver.
In the Preface to Stephen M. R. Covey’s book The Speed of Trust, his father, Stephen R. Covey (of Seven Habits fame), makes this remarkable statement: “My interactions with business leaders around the world have made it increasingly evident that ‘speed to market’ is now the ultimate competitive weapon.”
Just think about that for a moment—the ultimate competitive weapon is speed. The most important thing an Entrepreneur can do to win out over the competition is get his product to market fast.
The Entrepreneur instinctively knows—or learns quickly through experience—that it’s not how much money he makes, but how much money he makes in a given per...
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- PublisherThreshold Editions
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 1451629117
- ISBN 13 9781451629118
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- Number of pages304
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The Entrepreneur (Paperback)
Published by
Simon & Schuster, New York
(2015)
ISBN 10: 1451629117
ISBN 13: 9781451629118
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. As the progressives now in power in Washington continue to ignore the Constitution and increase taxes, regulations, and government control over the economy, the most maligned and beleaguered individual in the U.S. is the Entrepreneur. Millions of small business people are Entrepreneurs, and they create the most new jobs in America. Yet their very existence is being threatened by the increasingly draconian measures of the federal government. Unfortunately, this situation is guaranteed to get worse. Even before Obamacare was forced on Americans who were overwhelmingly against it, the United States was bankrupt. Its debt and unfunded liabilities (in excess of $100 trillion) are already double the wealth of all American corporations and citizens combined. There will be no substantive cuts in spending as long as Barack Obama is in power. There will, of course, be a lot of political babble about cutting waste and fraud, but the real problems (such as Social Security and Medicare) will continue to go unresolved. These are the mandatory items in the budget that guarantee that no serious spending cuts will be implemented at least until 2012 if then. Washington will continue to tax and regulate the Entrepreneur, because he is the easiest target for the governments insatiable appetite for expropriating money and increasing its power over both individuals and the free market. The Entrepreneur stands in the way of everything the progressive desires to achieve, because his methods are better, cheaper, and more efficient than the governments. Ringer, a #1 bestselling author, explains what it takes for an entrepreneur to succeed in an environment that has become increasingly hostile towards small businesses under the Obama administration. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781451629118
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The Entrepreneur The Way Back for the US Economy
Published by
Simon and Schuster
(2015)
ISBN 10: 1451629117
ISBN 13: 9781451629118
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Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # L0-9781451629118
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The Entrepreneur: The Way Back for the U.S. Economy
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Threshold Editions
(2015)
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Reprint. Special order direct from the distributor. Seller Inventory # ING9781451629118
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The Entrepreneur: The Way Back for the U.S. Economy
Published by
Simon & Schuster
(2015)
ISBN 10: 1451629117
ISBN 13: 9781451629118
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. This item is printed on demand. New copy - Usually dispatched within 5-9 working days. Seller Inventory # C9781451629118
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The Entrepreneur: The Way Back for the U.S. Economy
Published by
Threshold Editions
(2015)
ISBN 10: 1451629117
ISBN 13: 9781451629118
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think1451629117
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The Entrepreneur The Way Back for the US Economy
Published by
Simon and Schuster
(2015)
ISBN 10: 1451629117
ISBN 13: 9781451629118
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Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Delivered from our UK warehouse in 4 to 14 business days. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # L0-9781451629118
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The Entrepreneur: The Way Back for the U.S. Economy
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THRESHOLD ED
(2015)
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Book Description Condition: New. Über den AutorAfter a string of three consecutive #1 bestsellers in the late seventies (two of which have been listed by The New York Times among the fifteen bestselling motivational books of all time), Robert Ringer b. Seller Inventory # 902845064
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