The Entrepreneur Revolution
One thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of years is that things are changing. You may be saying Jay, of course, things change every day. When I’m talking about change, I am meaning specifically within this world of entrepreneurship. I believe we are definitely entering or have already entered into The Entrepreneur Revolution. That probably sounds like something very bold of me to say, but take a minute and think about it. Since COVID 19, we have been in a situation. We watched millions of people, not just lose their jobs, but actually walk off their jobs, walk away from their nine-to-five. Some people have left six-figure jobs, some people have left a $6/hour job. When they left their job, they went on to start their own business, pursue their passions, pursue the things that they felt were going to put them and their families in a better place.
People walking away from their jobs to this degree has never happened in the history of the world. People weren’t walking off anywhere. Unless you count when people walked off of the plantations when the slaves were freed, 1929, during The Great Depression, and in 2008, the Housing Recession, which was some of the other times when the world was under crisis or the economy was in a crisis, but never before have people voluntarily walked off their job at this rate. Because of the information that is available, people are realizing that the skill they have acquired can actually make them more money than they can make at a nine-to-five job or in their careers. Some people have been in their careers for 10 or 15 years and see that retirement is not going to be what they think it is. As a result, they’re choosing today to say, I’m going to go ahead and change the course.
Well, what does that mean for entrepreneurship?
Is it better? Is it worse? For me, I believe it can go either way, but there are a few factors that will keep it from moving one way or the other. I would like for it to be great for everyone. However, it doesn’t work that way. One thing I believe we need to truly understand about what entrepreneurship is is that there is a responsibility that comes with it. For example, when you decide to be an entrepreneur, you’re going to step out immediately and not have health insurance.
When you have 10,000 people in one community, who decide to be business owners, for a little while it’s going to be an unhealthy community. You’re going to have unstable financial scenarios. Why? Because immediately you don’t know how your money is going to be. You’re out there trying to figure it out no matter how good or great you are at what you do. However, making the money will take time. It’s going to be a huge learning curve, not for your skillset as I mentioned, but for you to gain an understanding of how to deal with entrepreneurship. For some people, it’s going to take 90 days. For others, it will take six months. Some people might take a whole calendar year to get their wings and start getting into a flow where they can actually sustain themselves.
And that affects the economy that affects the neighborhood, that affects where you live. There is also an oversaturation of the market. There’s going to be a lot of people who feel like they know how to cook, just as good as the next person. Now, in one community, you have a hundred chefs or a hundred caterers. This will definitely change things where before maybe it was only two. Now it’s 200. You have to start thinking about that. Now, you’re saying, Jay, that’s all the bad things. What are the good things?
I’m glad you asked, it’s a lot of great things. One thing about entrepreneurship is innovation. When you become an entrepreneur, a true entrepreneur, you’re trying to create something. You’re trying to create something to solve problems. You’re trying to do something and fill a gap in your community that wouldn’t have otherwise been filled without your intuition, without you having the strength to step out on your own and try.
That’s an amazing thing! You’re helping out your community in other ways, people build businesses, build homes, and move to certain places and cities because of the business community. If you are contributing to a healthy business community, then you’ll be contributing to bringing more people into your community, and into your city. At the end of the day, you’ll help your city, you’ll help out schools because your city is doing the right thing with your tax money. This will be paying for schools. You’ll be able to provide services for schools and help other students and children. For the next generation, you will have a vision of something else to do that they probably wouldn’t have otherwise had if you weren’t there. As you can see, there are plenty of things. Having 10,000 plus creatives in one way or another, coming into your community and being successful, is going to make your community explode like none other.
There are multiple ways that this can go, but how do we keep it positive?
We do this truly through education, we have to dedicate ourselves to knowing what entrepreneurship is and how it’s going to help. When you talk about a revolution, revolutions usually come around when people are trying to be freed from something, from people that feel like they oppressed you. If we are having an Entrepreneurial Revolution, then we have to understand what we are freeing ourselves from other than the big, bad boss on the job. Are we freeing ourselves in our communities from ever going back to poverty? Are we freeing our households in our generations from ever going back to poverty? Are we educating with the funds that we are making? Are we educating our kids better? Are we putting better amenities around our communities for the people that live there?
If we can educate ourselves and actually find out how we can do these things via entrepreneurship, then I think that this revolution will be one of the greatest we’ve ever seen. I’m happy to be a part of it and I’m happy to be right here in your business corner to help guide you through it.
