During my studies and research I have read numerous times that our economy and all economies are driven by small business or entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs develop new products…new methods… new innovative approaches to old businesses. These small business owners hire new workers at a faster pace than the established, blue chip companies. Entrepreneurs are continually looking for new and more efficient ways of doing business. In order to survive the next payroll they must control costs and find better ways.
All the technology that we enjoy today, including smart phones, laptops, tablets, HDTV, cars that practically drive themselves and the list goes on and on. These new technologies were started in most cases by entrepreneurs in their garages. Steve Jobs is a great example of this. These entrepreneurs are the back bone of your economy as well as the global economy. New ideas are born every day. What we don’t see is the failed tries of these innovators. Each experiment was often followed by failure only to get up and try again.
These entrepreneurs had a vision of the next new method or product and kept moving forward after each failed attempt. It appears to many outsiders that these small business owners were actually only lucky to ‘fall’ into their success. In some cases this is true when the owner inherited their business and did nothing but maintain the status quo.
But most successful small businesses were built from new ideas and taking chances.
But where did these entrepreneurs come from? What was the training necessary for this level of success?
This past weekend I helped out at a snowmobile radar run. Each participant would pay a small fee and run his/her snowmobile/ATV down the track to determine how fast they were going at the ‘finish’ line. After a short time there I began to wonder why would anyone do this? It was cold, we were standing on a frozen river. The High Falls Flowage, boat landing three. Anyway it was really cold. And what was the end result?
Then it dawned on me as I watched the participants tinkering with their sleds. After each run they would open the hood and try to improve the performance. If they failed they tried again and again. At the end of the day some won trophies. However I believe each participant went back and tried to improve their chances of repeating their success or becoming successful.
This was entrepreneurs in training. This is an example of those who have good ideas and the courage to implement them despite any failures along the way.
This innovative thinking and doing is the future of our economy and the markets.
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