I have been a little busy so I have not updated my blog in a bit. I will have some good news about AffirmTrust to share at some point in the near future and will write about when to angel versus venture fund a company.
However, today I am inspired to write about something else. I feel that the strongest attribute we have in America is the entrepreneur. We innovate more than any other nation. At our core, we are a country of risk takers and dreamers. The very spirit of being an entrepreneur is different than what most people understand.
Those who innovate, create jobs not take jobs. They see a product, a market or a vision in way everyone else misses. The ideas are bigger than the money they take on or the risk they take. Great entrepreneurship is often born out of failure and ridicule by those who take jobs. Think about the failure then success of Apple and others. Nothing comes easy for the inventor as the world is changed over time by their ideas and often it is not an easy journey.
I believe that those who take risks, see things differently and innovate through cycles of failure and success are giants because they cause meaningful change. By its nature innovation is not always received well at first - it is different and the people who innovate are different.
I have run into all sorts of people, but I can see a true difference in the entrepreneur – often misunderstood but frequently redeemed. There is a cycle I call Icarus Phoenix where the inventor idealistically flies too close to the sun on wings of wax betting on the wrong things or wrong people. He/ She falls to earth only to rise again for another try to soar on solid wings.
The bonus in all of this hard work is that it is fun for the entrepreneur to strive to become a giant. I don’t mean you have to impact the world like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs to be a giant; you just need to impact it.
In our country and especially New England and California, we have an abundance of Giants.
