Best Days

When I ask a room full of young entrepreneurs about their goals, some envision a life full of starting and growing businesses. Others tell me that they want to achieve business success early in life and then retire young. To them, entrepreneurship is simply instrumental to other plans they have for their lives.
Wilson Ng at Business-Driven Life ponders the question of early success in business and what it means for the rest of his life. He worries about peaking too early, as he is certain he would miss the excitement that entrepreneurship brings to his life.
When I was active as an entrepreneur I would often think about the next deal to chase. Like Wilson, I enjoyed the excitement of starting and growing a business, and we had many opportunities to do just that.
Then about nine years ago we sold most of our businesses. I was ready to find the next opportunity. But, my wife pulled on my sleeve and encouraged me to slow down. She suggested that I take some time to think about what I really wanted for the next phase of my life. At first it was hard for me, as I had lots of opportunities to examine and possible deals to pursue. But she is wise, and I listened to her advice. I took my time and really examined what I wanted to do next.
With time I realized that I wanted to spend more time with my family. I realized that there were other things for me to do besides another business start-up. I realized that I missed college teaching. I had never taken the time to think about all of this in the heat and excitement of building a business. But, once we sold our business I could take time to reflect and discern: and my wife made sure that I did.
Entrepreneurship is a wonderful path in life. I will always be grateful for the opportunities and challenges it offered me. But, I realized that it was not all that I was called to do in life.
When life offers you a chance to pause and reflect, take advantage of it. You may jump on to the next deal and you can do so knowing it is where you need to be. But, you may realize it is time for a new chapter.
Even though my days as an active entrepreneur are probably over, I truly believe that my best days are yet to come. Success takes many forms.

Small Business Feeling Interest Rates

Small Businesses are beginning to feel the effects of interest rate increases, according this report from the AP (via Law and Entrepreneurship).
“While $2-a-gallon gasoline grabs plenty of media attention today, small businesses are well aware of another source of rising costs the upward creep of interest rates. Owners say they’ve been feeling the effects of rising rates in the nearly 10 months since the Federal Reserve began nudging rates higher.”

A New Age for Transportation?

Entrepreneurs ride the waves of change. Over the past 100 years we have seen transportation (automobile, trains and planes) and information (hardware and software) support the economic expansion in America.
What will be the next major wave? That is the sixty four trillion dollar question.
There are some signs that transportation may again shape our economic future. That may sound a bit crazy given that we are now paying $2 – $3 a gallon for gas and the airlines and railroad industries are in disarray. But, we have come to rely both culturally and socially on physical connectedness in this increasing global economy. There in lies the source for possible opportunities. It may be time for transportation to go through another technological revolution that could support the world economy for decades to come.
What shape it may take is not clear. It never really is clear anytime we are in a time of revolutionary change. In the beginning of the information age we had no idea which companies or even which technologies would prevail in the market. Who would have guessed twenty years ago that I would be sitting today on my back porch buy topiramate 100 mg typing into a machine on my lap that through a wireless connection can broadcast my words all over the globe?
The information age is still an exciting part of our world and will be for some time to come. But, it is inevitable that the breakthroughs will begin to slow down enough so that this segment of the economy will no longer be the main engine of growth.
So where might a new transportation age take us? Could it be some variation of the hydrogen cars now being developed by General Motors? Could is be travel in the sky as envisioned by NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS)? Could it come out of the work of Burt Rutan and his group? Or could it be some breakthrough that an unknown group in North Dakota is working on in a garage in Fargo?
I am not sure what the next transportation age will look like, but I am beginning to feel more and more strongly that it will come. Change and chaos creates entrepreneurial opportunity. The potential crisis of supply of fossil fuels and the complete inefficiency of our current transportation systems just oozes opportunity.

Fed Official Understands Entrepreneurial Economy

St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole supported one of the key factors in supporting the entrepreneurial economy: get the government out of the way of entrepreneurs. From ABC News:
“(H)e cautioned against the intervention of government agencies to lift America’s vital entrepreneurial spirit.
“‘Are government officials really qualified to determine the resources that entrepreneurs need?’ he said in the text of a speech, made available in advance to the media.”
The answer, of course, is “No”!
(Thanks to Ben Cunningham for passing this story along).

Innovation Alone Does Not Create Economic Development

Many governmental programs focus their support on innovation and invention. While these can be the seeds of economic development, entrepreneurship is the process that leads to real business growth according to a new study released by the SBA Office of Advocacy.
“Entrepreneurship is the link between inventors, innovation, and economic growth,” said Brian Headd, Economist for the Office of Advocacy. “It’s not enough to just focus economic development on inventors and innovation. Entrepreneurs need to be cultivated as well, so that innovations can be turned into jobs and economic growth.”
The study, ‘The Innovation-Entrepreneurship NEXUS’ written by Advanced Research Technologies, LLC, demonstrates that innovation without entrepreneurship generally yields minimal economic impact. The authors note that, “Whether they are building new firms or reinventing existing ones, entrepreneurs, through the application of new ideas to products and services, capture locally the economic benefits of innovation.”
Public policy should address those factors that support entrepreneurial activity. Most studies have conclusively shown that reduced government interference in the small business development process and entrepreneurial education are the most effective means to support entrepreneurial economic growth.