HISTORY DETERMINES THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADER...

Throughout history we witnessed the entrepreneurial leader who recognizes the problem of their time and then leads the plan to create a solution to that problem. Those great entrepreneurial leaders innovated business ideas that changed the course of history. And we’ve learned about leaders who’ve inspired movements throughout history with a compelling vision. For the leaders to be effective the times had to be right. None of our current realities in life that you and I have become accustomed to would have come to fruition without the right timing. The printing press for example. Information and knowledge was bulging at the seams in the dark ages and entrepreneurial leaders during the middle ages were needed to release it. This led to the Renaissance. We can all recollect land expansion in the 1800’s that needed to be supported by the development of the railroad. This in turn exploded the steel industry that led to the industrial age. The cables that followed the path of the railroad were needed to improve communication evolved into the telegraph. This led ultimately to the telephone although you and I now appreciate what’s being called the smart phone with the advent of the information age. When history changes, so do the unique problems that affect people during their times. What makes the entrepreneurial leader so valuable is that problems of the times are so subtle that the average population is blind to them. Like a cache of gold lying beneath the ground only waiting to be discovered, the keen eye of the entrepreneur must discover yet another solution to what Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter describes as “a perceived discomfort.

Leadership qualities are essential for the entrepreneur. As in the past, an entrepreneur is needed to spot a problem that requires a solution. A vision that describes the solution to the problem must be so powerful that it stirs the masses. Then, enough people will perceive a need to change habits from their routines. Character is the distinguishing quality of the entrepreneurial leader. It’s required to take their solution from start to finish. Character is required because as with all great ideas there will be resistance and roadblocks. To gain a deeper understanding of who the entrepreneurial leader is and what they do, Maury Klein in ‘The Golden Age of the Entrepreneur’ writes, “One common characteristic of these entrepreneurs defies the stereotype. Usually they are portrayed as rugged individuals operating as lone wolves in the business jungle. Nothing could be more misleading. Although they tended to view their creations as intensely personal, they believed ardently in teamwork and relied heavily on others to help them realize their visions. Like great artists, they conceived and executed an expression of themselves yet sought to make something greater than the self.” Leadership qualities have been described nicely by Wall Street Journal and New York Times best - selling authors of ‘Launching a Leadership Revolution,’ Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady.

The Entrepreneurial Leader must then devise a way to reach people in global proportions. A phenomenon of the 21st century is called a ‘business system.’ Similar to the printing press of the middle ages, business systems are essential to leveraging the spread of an idea. A simple business system is key because, in essence, the beginner becomes as competent as the expert in day one. In one day a process can be put in place that Michael Gerber describes in Inc. magazine’s CEO number one rated best seller, ‘The E – Myth,’ “How can I systematize my business in such a way that it could be replicated 5,000 time, so the 5,000th unit would run as smoothly as the first?” Today’s systematized business solution comes in the form of, ‘Intellectual Capital.’ The times have made it possible. Thomas A. Stewart, describes it, “Intellectual capital is the sum of everything everybody in a company knows that gives it a competitive advantage… Intellectual capital is intellectual material – knowledge, information, intellectual property, experience, that can be put to use to create wealth. It’s collective brainpower.”

As media and many politicians would like to have you believe, the biggest problem in the world is not ‘Russian Collusion,’ or ‘Immigration.’ Unfortunately, those institutions may by just creating a diversion from having an entrepreneur identify a solution to perhaps the most catastrophic problem of our times. The progressive loss of freedom that comes from the transfer of wealth at the expense of the people. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, F. A. Hayek writes in, The Road to Serfdom,’ “The emphasis shifted from governmentally administered production activities to indirect regulation of supposedly private enterprises and even more to governmental transfer programs, involving extracting taxes from some in order to make grants to others – all in the name of equality and the eradication of poverty but in practice producing an erratic and contradictory mélange of subsidies to special interest groups. As a result, the fraction of the national income being spent by governments has continued to mount.”

Today’s national debt is $24 Trillion and climbing. That debt has exhausted the population, not just physically but mentally, creating a culture of stress in the form of insecurity and a reliance on entitlements. The ramifications of this debt is seen not only as the number one cause of divorce (institution of the family) but also in the form of mental illness caused from anxiety. “Consumers don’t have the luxury of endless deficit spending, though many act as if they do. They spend compulsively while ignoring their deteriorating condition. They put off dealing with problems until some outside event – credit denied, threat of foreclosure, legal action, harassing phone calls from debt collectors – forces a change,” according to a 2016 Nerdwallet study. 72% of Americans said they felt stressed about money, according to an American Psychological Association study. And 22% said they felt “extreme” stress over their finances. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety. Financial worries are a massive trigger for those disorders. Author Gary North writes in, ‘Inherit the Earth,’ “Because money is a monopoly of the State, the control of money becomes a political objective… When massive debt is indulged in across the board by the majority of the society, there follows an almost irresistible political pressure on the part of the debtors to inflate the currency. This leads to the destruction of values, the destruction of cooperation in the economy, the destruction of foreign credit, and on and on. It results, in other words, in very bad long – term consequences. It is, to put it bluntly, a form of theft.” USA today writes, Jan. 18th, 2018, “Revolving credit, mostly credit cards, increased by $11.2 billion to $1.023 trillion, the Federal Reserve said Monday. That nudged the figure past the $1.021 trillion high-water mark reached in April 2008, just before the housing and credit bubbles burst. Over the past year, revolving credit has surged by $55.1 billion, or 5.7%, according to the Fed and Contingent Macro Research.”

The ‘Entrepreneurial Leader’ will solve this problem. It will require a number of pieces, many of which have been put in place. A compelling vision that recognizes that unless each of us becomes involved in a solution, the freedom of posterity is at stake. The leadership quality of ‘Character’ to do the right thing against the tide of popularity of consumerism and entitlements, and the use of a business system that can teach ‘Financial Literacy,’ and ‘Entrepreneurship.’ David Silver who has been called, “perhaps the leading student of the psychology of entrepreneurs,” writes, “they are not interested in power, prestige, high visibility, or wealth per se. Driven by guilt, they have a gift for making complex things simple and a unique talent for formulating problems, are extraordinarily self reliant, and cannot conceive of failure. They possess “uncommon courage and bring to their work “an uncanny will to win.”

Being content with the status quo immediately disqualifies someone from being an entrepreneurial leader. However, if you are concerned, take a step forward by becoming involved in the solution. First, by learning ‘Financial Literacy,’ make yourself financially secure and able to make your own decisions without influence from outside forces who wish to manipulate your freedom. Secondly, share the entrepreneurial idea and help someone. In fact, help someone in a big way and the best way to do this is to develop your own leadership qualities and use a business system to multiply your results. History has provided the time. You are in the right place. The time is now for you to develop the ‘Entrepreneurial Leader.’