Entrepreneurs are Remarkably Common

When my first child was born, I felt it was the most remarkable thing I had ever witnessed. It was a miracle. It was beyond comprehension. For a very brief moment (I was very tired) I actually wondered if anyone else on the planet had experienced such a thing.

Turns out every parent on the planet had.

The exceptional can be commonplace. We all know how hard it must be to write a book. Then you walk into Barns & Noble and see the scads of titles and wonder if its really that difficult. Am I the only one who hasn't written a book?

Now I'm starting a business that is a newspaper for people starting a business. Three months ago, I would have seen entrepreneurs as a rare breed. When studying the research on entrepreneurs you quickly realize that there must be something in our human makeup that leads to new business ideas.

I think it has to do with freedom. We are free to think, dream, imagine. We can see a future we want to pursue. What a gift I must have, to be able to imagine something and then make it happen.

Well, the gift is not all that rare. According to the National Panel Study of U.S. Business Start-Ups (Babson College, 1999) there were 202 million individuals in the U.S. 18 years of age or older. 3.8% of those contacted qualified as nascent entrepreneurs. That means 7,700,000 people were involved in trying to start a business.

We are all doing something remarkable. And something remarkably common. It's a good thing to keep in mind when you start wondering if you'll survive the experience. It's been done before.

NewBizMinn
(nfp)