Entrepreneurs Are The Patriots of Today

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
inequity 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. 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 larger competitors, you travel
through a perpetual wilderness.

But somewhere, in the wilderness lies opportunity.