Entrepreneurs are the Patriots of Today

By Brian Hill Copyright all rights reserved.

On the Fourth of July, we celebrate the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The ideals and the spirit of the Founding Fathers are very much alive in the 21st Century -- in the lives, and the struggles, of the small business person. In fact, many entrepreneurial dreams begin with the declaration of independence from the tyranny of working for someone else, cutting loose from the unfairness and frustration of the rigid corporate structure.

The truths the entrepreneur holds self-evident include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and happiness involves much more than accumulating wealth. It most often means something much deeper -- an act of creation, seeing an idea for a new product take shape, seeing your name on a brand, providing job opportunities and satisfying customer needs in new and better ways. For most small business people, there is no great financial reward at the end -- the happiness is in the pursuit itself.

The framers of the Constitution had the daunting task of creating a new set of rules by which people agreed to govern themselves. These new rules would include much more respect for individual liberty. The entrepreneur has to do much the same thing when starting a business. There are no "Procedure Manuals," no long-winded "Personnel Guidebooks." The small business person is guided solely by his own wisdom and experience, and more often than not, a sincere desire to treat his employees better than he was treated when he worked for "someone else."

When the Constitution was adopted, leaders like Washington and Jefferson knew that the job of building a nation had just begun -- much of what would become the United States was still a wilderness. When you are a tiny, start-up company in an enormous economy, often facing much larger competitors, you sometimes feel as though you're traveling through a perpetual wilderness.

But somewhere in the wilderness lies opportunity. And you are absolutely certain you will find it. At the heart of the entrepreneurial spirit is the quest for freedom -- and that spirit is part of what makes America enduringly great. *****************

About Brian Hill Brian Hill's latest book The Pocket Small Business Owner's Guide to Business Plans was inspired by his experiences as a management consultant for the last 15 years assisting hundreds of small and mid-size companies with developing their business strategies and preparing their business plans. He is a partner of Profit Dynamics and the Capital-Connection website.