Entrepreneurship: Beating the Odds

There's no other country in the world that praises entrepreneurship like the US. Our history books are full of inventors like Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison who not only took risks to bring new innovations to the market, but carried out the belief that free enterprise was at the cornerstone of the American Dream.

Few countries take advantage of the entrepreneurial culture like the US. According to The Economist, Europeans have less to gain from entrepreneurship because of higher tax rates and risks outweigh rewards. In Germany, the law prevents people who have filed for bankruptcy to hold a CEO position. Not so in the US where failure is a motivator for getting back on the horse (despite the sting.)

American entrepreneurs don't become successful businessmen and women overnight despite the shortened tales of their rise to the top that are depicted far more often than the long road it took to get them on the Fortune 500 list. Yet, the contributions these entrepreneurs of our largest and smallest companies provide are astounding when you really look at the figures.

Entrepreneurship: What Are the Odds?

There are approximately 237 million adults (age 18+) in the US in which 11.5 percent are considered entrepreneurs. (Thailand tops the entrepreneurial chart; 19 percent engage in entrepreneurial activity.) Some 29 million small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ over half of the private sector. These small businesses are responsible for 93.7 percent of all exported goods as well as the majority of all new innovations. Rather amazing accomplishments from such a small sector of the population.

To put it in perspective, half of all kids under the age of 17 (41 million) play an organized, competitive sport in the US. By the time they reach the age of 13, nearly 70 percent have stopped playing. Today, there's approximately 4 million professional athletes, representing only 10 percent of those kids who first started playing a sport in their younger years. Hence, the odds of your kid becoming an entrepreneur is roughly the same as him or her becoming a professional athlete.

Beating the Entrepreneurship Odds

There are similarities and differences between venturing down the small business path and donning a high-priced uniform. Entrepreneurship can be learned, but like playing a sport, there's plenty of practice involved. If entrepreneurship just happened overnight, it would be akin to changing out a light bulb and calling yourself an electrician.

Most small businesses today are started by older Americans; 36 percent are between the ages of 55-64 while those 20-34 years old only account for 26 percent of new firms. The average age for those starting technology companies aren't your recent college grads either; the average age in that start-up sector is 39. Education, skill development and experience are key components to entrepreneurial activity in the US.

Entrepreneurship Training

From 2008 to 2009, entrepreneurial activity amongst those 6-19 years old actually fell by almost 40 percent. More troubling is that those under the age of 20 represent just over a quarter of the total US population - 85 million to be exact. Knowing how important entrepreneurship is to the economy, job creation and innovation would suggest that training is vital to the health of free enterprise. What would happen if business acumen was taught at the K-12 level? How many kids would have a leg up on the competition once they reached adulthood? How many more firms, jobs and innovations would be created in a shorter period of time? Will the next generation continue in their entrepreneurial efforts that made the US so great?

I'm still betting entrepreneurship.

Melissa

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