Entrepreneurship Is the Great Equalizer

The following is adapted from Create and Orchestrate.

There is a universal language in the world today, and it isn’t English or Chinese. The universal language of our world is business. While we have not all agreed on whose God is right or what laws we should live by, every developed nation has agreed to exchange money for value.

The universal language of business is no different than any other language in one very important way: you do not need credentials or anyone’s approval to speak it. And just like learning a new language, understanding business will give you the ability to see the world in an entirely new way—as an entrepreneur. 

To be an entrepreneur, you don’t need wealth or higher education. You simply need to understand the language of business. This understanding is available to everyone, making entrepreneurship the great equalizer that lets anyone overcome the challenges of our changing world.

The Challenges of Our Brave New World

The technologies that transformed the world have obscured the path to a good living. The internet, mobile phones, and the tech titans’ (Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.) relentless pursuit of perfecting customer experience has killed many industry incumbents while giving birth to new ones. Those of us who don’t understand how to leverage technology are finding it harder to make ends meet.

In the United States, our political, criminal justice, education, and healthcare systems all favor the wealthy. We talk about the 1 percent and the inequity it represents, but no one seems to have a good plan for leveling the playing field. While the technologies of the 21st century have lowered the barriers to launch a business, they have not resulted in a significant rebalance of power. In fact, by many measures, power is only getting more imbalanced.

The new economic mode of the world is “rapid change.” A viable skill today may not be viable in ten years. You now must read trends and forecast change so you can benefit from it rather than suffer because of it. You need to be able to think and move like an entrepreneur, even in how you navigate your career. 

Entrepreneurship is not just for startups. The most valuable and dominant companies in the world today are entrepreneurial at their core, and the rules of the new economy say that if you want to be competitive, you have to be entrepreneurial, too.

Unfortunately, entrepreneurship has been hyped up by the media to be something inaccessible to many who don’t have the right education, background, and connections. This is simply not the case.

Leveling the Playing Field

Horace Mann, a celebrated American educational reformer who advocated for public education in the 1800s said, “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance wheel of the social machinery.” 

I agree with Mann in the context of the 20th century, but things change. I believe that in the 21st century, entrepreneurship is replacing education as the great equalizer of power among people in free and democratic societies.

The core of Mann’s statement is not about education, it’s about learning valuable knowledge and skills. Both education and entrepreneurship are models for learning. Education, as we know it today, refers to academia; it is often theoretical, simulated, and taking place in an academy setting. Entrepreneurship is a real-world, experiential model of learning.

Entrepreneurship is responsible for the creation of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the United States, and this is becoming increasingly true of most countries in the developed world. 

While higher education can serve as a booster for success, it is not a requirement for entrepreneurship. I would not try to persuade anyone to avoid formal higher education. I would simply say that, unlike higher education, entrepreneurship excludes no one.

The Power of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the art and science of achieving sustainable business growth, but it’s more than that. Entrepreneurship creates agency and leverage to impact the world at scale. It allows you to level the playing field for yourself and those you care about and to make the world a more fair and equitable place. 

I see a future where most of the world’s population believes they can be entrepreneurs and have the tools to do so. This era of rapid change, important problems to solve, and democratized access to technology makes that future possible.

You, too, can learn the language of a business and become an entrepreneur, unleashing all your power.

For more advice on entrepreneurship, you can find Create and Orchestrate on Amazon.

Marcus Whitney is CEO and founder of Health:Further, a strategic advisory firm working with leading healthcare organizations, as well as founding partner of Jumpstart Health Investors, the most active venture capital firm in America focused on innovative healthcare companies. He is an in-demand speaker who hosts a podcast called Marcus Whitney’s Audio Universe, and sends out a weekly newsletter called Two Worlds. Marcus has been listed in the Upstart 100 by Upstart Business Journal, Power 100 by Nashville Business Journal, and has been featured in Inc., Fast Company, and The Atlantic. To connect with Marcus or receive his weekly newsletter, visit MarcusWhitney.com.