America’s Greatest Need: A Culture of Entrepreneurship

Post-Inauguration Day, Americans are predicting and evaluating their new leaders and policies being implemented. While those are important, there is something even more important that we have an opportunity to promote in 2025: A renewed culture of entrepreneurship.

We have heard about many proposed policies and negotiations that will affect the economy at large. Some are for the better, such as proposed deregulation, tax incentives for business, and negotiations with other leaders and countries to invest more in the United States (like the $500 billion “Stargate” project). Others are for the worse, such as far-reaching tariffs.

But what matters even more than such policy proposals would be for American leaders to foster a renewed culture of entrepreneurship. This matters because, for entrepreneurship and businesses to flourish, we need more than just policy; we need a hopeful narrative about the future and an appreciation of entrepreneurs’ role in society and how they create more paths to human flourishing by enabling upward economic mobility.

While there is nothing wrong with big businesses, we need a healthy dose of businesses of all sizes to have a dynamic and flourishing economy. Contrary to popular belief, it is not established business that creates more net new jobs; new fast-growing businesses generate the majority of net new jobs in a society.

But, business dynamism has been in decline since the 1970s. There are many reasons for this decline, including patent litigation, an increase of regulations, and an expansion of occupational licensing. But we can’t discount a more vibe-themed reason for the culture of entrepreneurship being in decline.

A culture of entrepreneurship values achievement and success—whether it be through profit, finding a solution to a societal problem, or just meeting the demand of consumers for different goods and services. At the moment, the vibe (as young people say) across America is that entrepreneurs and billionaires are policy failures and that achievement and success are frowned upon, even sometimes by entrepreneurs themselves.

A culture of entrepreneurship is about a win-win-win worldview that creates more paths to human flourishing. A win-win-win mindset considers the value added and positive-sum thinking behind an entrepreneur’s success, the jobs they create for their employees, and how those jobs in turn help families and society at large. It is crucial for society to realize that, through their work, entrepreneurs enable others to pursue their dreams, find employment, achieve upward mobility, and even discover their life’s purpose.

Continue reading at the Southern California News Group.