Learning the lesson of enterprise from the US
It’s become ever-more fashionable to denigrate the US.
To be sure, just like every other country the US has its problems, and just like so much else that happens in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, its problems are supersized – horrible and vicious politics, violence generally and guns in particular, race relations, the wealth gap.
It would be easy to add to this list. There’s even chatter about the US inexorably sliding into civil war. And all the while China lurks, looking to reclaim its destiny as the Middle Kingdom around which all the world revolves and pays homage.
But it’s not hopeless for the US. Many of the reasons why it became so rich, so powerful and so attractive to so many people over several centuries are still in place.
America always was, and remains, the land of opportunities. Enterprise made America rich, and fortunately for all of us aged over 50, we’re a BIG PART of the enterprise story.
The popular image of a start-up entrepreneur is a young buck a couple of years out of college who has a brilliant idea for the latest app or gadget.
Young people with new ideas, a fresh perspective and the get-up-and-go gumption to create new products and services are hugely welcome and good luck to them.
However, as we hear from Carl Schramm in this interview from 2018, older entrepreneurs are most definitely part of the enterprise conversation. Carl tells us that the average age in the US of starting a new business was 39.
Even better, the chances were five times greater for the business to be still operating for people aged 40 to 50 compared with people in the 20 to 30 cohort.
On reflection, the reasons Carl lists for the success of older entrepreneurs make perfect sense – decades of real-life business experience and sufficient saved capital.
For us in the Switched ON community who have always dreamed about starting our own business, the takeaway from Carl is that far from having missed our chance, our business and life experience are invaluable assets that we can cash-in for our success.
It’s an invaluable lesson in enterprise that would-be, Switched ON, older-age Aussie entrepreneurs can learn from the US.
To be sure, just like every other country the US has its problems, and just like so much else that happens in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, its problems are supersized – horrible and vicious politics, violence generally and guns in particular, race relations, the wealth gap.
It would be easy to add to this list. There’s even chatter about the US inexorably sliding into civil war. And all the while China lurks, looking to reclaim its destiny as the Middle Kingdom around which all the world revolves and pays homage.
But it’s not hopeless for the US. Many of the reasons why it became so rich, so powerful and so attractive to so many people over several centuries are still in place.
America always was, and remains, the land of opportunities. Enterprise made America rich, and fortunately for all of us aged over 50, we’re a BIG PART of the enterprise story.
The popular image of a start-up entrepreneur is a young buck a couple of years out of college who has a brilliant idea for the latest app or gadget.
Young people with new ideas, a fresh perspective and the get-up-and-go gumption to create new products and services are hugely welcome and good luck to them.
However, as we hear from Carl Schramm in this interview from 2018, older entrepreneurs are most definitely part of the enterprise conversation. Carl tells us that the average age in the US of starting a new business was 39.
Even better, the chances were five times greater for the business to be still operating for people aged 40 to 50 compared with people in the 20 to 30 cohort.
On reflection, the reasons Carl lists for the success of older entrepreneurs make perfect sense – decades of real-life business experience and sufficient saved capital.
For us in the Switched ON community who have always dreamed about starting our own business, the takeaway from Carl is that far from having missed our chance, our business and life experience are invaluable assets that we can cash-in for our success.
It’s an invaluable lesson in enterprise that would-be, Switched ON, older-age Aussie entrepreneurs can learn from the US.
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We are an online organisation based in Melbourne, Australia. We are committed
to creating and continuously providing compelling well being
content for people aged over 50.
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