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Resurrecting America's Entrepreneurial Spirit
A Practical Approach For Creating Jobs
By Joe Nicassio
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Joe Nicassio
All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4685-4032-1
Chapter One
Is The Entrepreneurial Spirit In America Dead? The fast answer is some have it, and some don't.
Triage
In medical terms, triage is the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to sort large numbers of patients or casualties. Patients are categorized as MINOR, DELAYED, IMMEDIATE, or DECEASED.
If we apply this idea to entrepreneurship, we can sort peoples Entrepreneurial Spirit as having MINOR problems, DELAYED problems, IMMEDIATE problems, or DECEASED.
If we look at the super successful entrepreneurs around the world, like Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, etc. they clearly have a healthy entrepreneurial spirit.
There is another group of entrepreneurs that are comfortable, but achieving a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of their true potential. A healthy business is thriving, or has MINOR ailments. They have large revenue, they are growing, but could still do better.
Another group appears to be healthy, but their foundation is weak, due to a variety of issues ranging from changes in the marketplace, accidental success (vs. principle based success), to poor management based on false assumptions. These people will face DELAYED problems, if they don't diagnose proper solutions.
There's also a large group that is trying. They want to succeed, but it's an uphill battle ... a painful struggle. These problems are IMMEDIATE, and need to be addressed immediately.
Then there's a group that has given up hope completely. Upon initial examination, their spirit is DECEASED. But as long as there is life, there is hope!
In my experience, too many Americans are afraid of starting their own business. We will discuss those fears, or "Spirit Killers", and how to overcome them with "Spirit Builders" later in this book.
What's The Current Paradigm?
During the past few generations, our culture has been chanting "Go to school, get a good education, get a degree, and get a job."
There WAS a lot of wisdom with that, in the past.
Past truth is present fallacy.
Today, you don't get paid for your degrees. You get paid for your value to the marketplace.
Our workforce has evolved from agrarian, to industrial, to service and knowledge-based economies. During this period, the workforce needed more highly educated employees.
Mass production created millions of jobs. To improve profits, there was high demand for a highly skilled, more educated workforce. Educated professionals were scarce, so they could get higher wages.
Today, the marketplace is saturated with college graduates.
Those who can communicate, articulate, and deliver value get jobs.
Those who can't remain unemployed.
Jobs are not an entitlement, even if you have a college education. You still need to prove your value to the marketplace.
The Problem With The Current Paradigm
When you have a job, you are not necessarily self-reliant. You often become employer-reliant. In most states, an employer can terminate an employee at will, anytime, for almost any reason, unless you have an employment contract, which most employees don't have.
Without a contract, you can become unemployed, or laid off, without any reason at all.
Most employees are not on the board of directors, so they have very little say on policy changes.
Hourly pay punishes speed, and rewards sluggish behavior.
There is a gap between the American dream of rewards for hard work, and the lack of true "meritocracy". Americans want to be rewarded for hard work, but employers rarely deliver on this promise.
According to Stephen McNamee and Robert Miller, authors of "The Meritocracy Myth", they suggest that while merit does indeed affect who ends up with what, the impact of merit on economic outcomes is vastly overestimated by the ideology of the American Dream.
Secondly, they identify a variety of non-merit factors that suppress, neutralize, or even negate the effects of merit and create barriers to individual performance.
Bottom Line: Employees want to be rewarded for merit, and employers frequently fall short.
What's The New Paradigm?
"Go to school, get a good education, get a degree, and get a job, OR start your own business."
By suggesting, and encouraging entrepreneurship as a viable career option, Americans will consider preparing to learn everything they need to succeed as a business founder, and possible job creator.
Not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, primarily due to a lack of education. Entrepreneurial encouragement can come from parents, teachers, the government, the media, private foundations, churches, and many other sources.
Although entrepreneurial education exists, it is scarce.
Maybe it comes from father to son, as in the case of Donald Trump. Maybe it comes from specialized university graduate programs.
These programs are completely inadequate to create the entrepreneurs we need to have JOB ABUNDANCE.
In order to achieve this new paradigm, I recommend:
Public Education Should Offer Entrepreneur 101 As An Option to EVERY High School Student In America!
This is a bold proposition. Currently, high school graduates get out of school, and either proceed to college, or they look for a job. Without specialized skills, most of these graduates will end up under-appreciated, at low paying jobs. They will likely struggle to make a good living.
And for those who continue on to college, there is still no guarantee of finding a job that fully utilizes their specialized knowledge, skills, gifts, and abilities. The majority of college graduates will end up underemployed, or work outside their field of study.
The marketplace is saturated with college graduates who can't "make the sale" to justify employment. This simple fact is proof that high schools, colleges and universities are NOT providing necessary success skills.
Graduates are screaming for jobs. The real message, however, is the scream for educational reform, that will give graduates the ability to sell their education, regardless of who the employer is.
What does it mean to "Nurture Entrepreneurs?"
1) Educating Empowering Attitudes and Mindsets about Entrepreneurial Success. 2) Creating clarity about scientifically determining market demand. 3) Educating the strategies and tactics of entrepreneurial success this includes marketing, innovation, creativity, corporate structuring, finance, manufacturing methods, etc. 4) Skills training, including sales skills, social skills, public speaking skills, team building, delegation skills, etc. 5) Creating more supportive environments for entrepreneurs, such as business incubators.
A suggested curriculum for Entrepreneur 101 is listed in Appendix A.
Why Do Foreigners Come To America, And Succeed At Business Better Than Our Citizens?
While American children are encouraged to "Go to school, get a good education, get a degree, and get a job,"
Foreigners get a different message from their parents.
They are told, "America is the land of opportunity. Anyone can start their own business, and get rich."
The message of foreigners is different. It's a message of rugged individualism. It's a message of hope.
Different cultural programming creates different results.
Isn't it time we change the entire dialog from parents?
Isn't it time we change the entire dialog from schools?
Isn't it time we change the entire dialog from the government?
Are you with me on this?
Everyone is Self Employed
If you have a business, and, as an example, you have 100 customers, if you lose a customer, you still have 99 customers, and you still have revenue.
When you have a job, you ARE self-employed, you just have one customer. If you lose that job, you are screwed. It's the classical mistake of having all of your eggs in one basket.
And when you are unemployed, you are self-employed, with no customers. We are ALL in business for ourselves.
There is no excuse for unemployment in America when you can INSTANTLY decide to CREATE YOUR OWN BUSINESS by providing SERVICE and VALUE to PEOPLE in exchange for MONEY.
Job Security Is An Illusion
Three generations ago, employers promised job security, and they were loyal to employees. Today, employers have no loyalty, and they will lay you off any time, for any reason, or without any reason at all.
The Best Way To Get Your Dream Job Is To Create It!
The purpose of a business is to create a profit. The purpose of a business is to create better life for the business owners.
When a business grows, the success of the business requires the support of others. But the job is not tailored around making employees happy. Employees are needed to do the work, without consideration of your personal fulfillment. If you find a job that fulfills you, consider yourself lucky.
If you want to set your own rules, using your own talents, in ways that YOU decide, the ONLY way you can have that is to create it for yourself.
Then, when you thrive, and get busy, IF you decide you want help, you can create jobs, which is a noble calling. And if you decide you want to be a "Solo-preneur", working for yourself, you've still created one job ... Your Own!
Chapter Two
Whenever You Blame The Economy, You are SLITTING Your Own Financial Throat! Yes, it's true, the economic environment is tough.
The real question is ...
Are YOU tough enough to weather the storm?
We are currently going through an epidemic of blame!
This is time to look at yourself with strict eyes, and be accountable for your own results.
Ask yourself these questions:
Can I improve my skills at generating leads?
Can I improve my ability to tell my business story more effectively?
Can I improve my ability to nurture my clients?
Can I close the sale better?
The truth is, we can ALL do better!
You may be asking yourself, "Why should I listen to you, Joe?"
Fair question.
I've personally been through many financial storms, I've been through the fires of financial hell, I've been forged by the fire, and it has made me stronger.
I am a Phoenix, someone that has risen from the ashes.
For the past 15 plus years, I've been helping others turn around their "business hell" into more profitable scenarios.
If I can recover, and my other clients can recover, then so can you!
The question is ...
How important is it for you to become a better marketer, promoter and closer?
Are you open to learning more skills, refining your approach, and raising your standards? Or are you going to be a "Victim", and "Blame" the economy?
If you have ten people that can benefit, experience life improvement, or profit from your offering, are you selling ten out of ten?
Nobody does.
But that's not the point. The point is, no matter how good you are, there's always room for improvement.
If you are currently selling 2 out of 10, and you can improve that to 3 or 4 out of ten, you've radically improved your profits, and radically reduced your wasted time.
The first step to improving your results is to acknowledge what is working, and what is not.
Until and unless you have the honest to God belief that you can learn more, you are destined to be a "victim" of circumstances.
So, here's your affirmation during the current economic environment:
"In order for things to get better, I'VE got to get better."
It's not the economy.
It's YOU!
There are TWO economies!
"God, grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change, the courage to change those things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
There is a macro economy, and a micro economy.
The macro economy consists of things you have no control of ... tax policy, the federal reserve, interest rates, congress, and government corruption, etc.
Yes, you can vote, but don't lose any sleep over those things. Your voice is too small.
On the other hand, the micro economy says you are only one sales transaction away from improving YOUR personal economy.
You can control your micro economy. You can promote more, generate more leads, and you can close more sales.
Give yourself serenity. Focus on YOUR personal economy.
This wisdom will allow you to sleep much better at night.
This section of the book identifies 21 "Spirit Killers," with corresponding "Spirit Builders" to provoke you to re-evaluate your philosophy, and lead you down a path of self-improvement.
Spirit Killer Number 1: Fear Of Failure
"You've failed? Congratulations! Now you're an expert at what not to do." Napoleon Hill
According to U.S Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Business Dynamics Statistics, seven out of ten new employer firms last at least two years, and about half survive five years.
More specifically, according to new Census data, 69 percent of new employer establishments born to new firms in 2000 survived at least two years, and 51 percent survived five or more years. Firms born in 1990 had very similar survival rates. With most firms starting small, 99.8 percent of the new employer establishments were started by small firms. Survival rates were similar across states and major industries.
These figures could be skewed slightly by the rare occurrence of new firms opening multiple establishments in their first few years.
When I researched the accuracy of these reports ...
I found the SBA website had so many research studies, that reported to a multitude of success and failure research papers.
Businesses succeed and fail for a variety of reasons. Quit focusing on failure.
Instead ...
Spirit Builder Number 1: Focus On Doing Everything Right
"You cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking that created them." Albert Einstein
There are many reasons people fail. This is why studying the science of success, and studying failure can stack the odds of success in your favor.
Here are some ways to focus on doing things right, to avoid failure:
1) Do something you are passionate about, and enjoy. 2) Study the marketplace, and discover what people are hungry for. A starving market is more important than location, customer service, or any other factor. 3) Keep your health, so you have the stamina to put in the long hours required. 4) Keep it positive, even during the tough times. 5) Don't let setbacks, frustrations, or worries stall you out. Instead, keep moving, despite the setbacks, frustrations or worries. 6) Enjoy people, and maintain integrity at all costs. 7) Maintain the balance of independence, and surrounding yourself with people who support you. 8) Manage your finances wisely. Buy low, sell high, keep your expenses down, get a unique advantage, invest wisely, and retire early with a sound exit strategy. 9) Hire intelligently. When it is time to bring in help, the right people will help you soar. The wrong people will make you fail. 10) All that said, according to Michael Gerber, business systems expert, there are no bad employees, just bad systems. Instead of being "people dependent" and finding the best people to do the best job, become "system dependent." Create exceptional systems so that ordinary people can get consistently good results.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Resurrecting America's Entrepreneurial Spirit by Joe Nicassio Copyright © 2012 by Joe Nicassio . Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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