Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-06-29)

E C O N O M I C S

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● ByDavidSax

28

Edited by

Cristina Lindblad

A Reset for

Entrepreneurship

BloombergBusinessweek June 29, 2020

Twohundredand ninetyyearsago,whenthe

French-IrisheconomistRichardCantillonfirst

definedanentrepreneurasanyonewhoworked

forunfixedwages,henotedthattheonethingthat

linkedallentrepreneurs—fromwealthymerchants

tobeggars—was the risk they shouldered as the

price of independence.

That cost is clearly visible on the faces of entre-

preneurs everywhere today. Shut down by necessity

and starved of customers, many small businesses

are bleeding money and fighting to stave off fail-

ure. Forty-four percent reported a decline in reve-

nue during the second week in June because of the

pandemic, according to data released by the U.S.

Census Bureau on June 18. As the boarded-up shops,

restaurants, and stores around our neighborhoods

already hint at, many won’t survive the crisis.

As a journalist, I’ve devoted my career to writ-

ing about entrepreneurs in the pages of this and

other magazines, as well as in books, the latest of

which is The Soul of an Entrepreneur. I know they’re

a resilient bunch. And that gives me hope, because

while Covid-19 is ending many small businesses, it’s

already creating scores of new ones (page 30). The

pandemic might have brought American entrepre-

neurship to the breaking point, but it also holds the

key to its revival and a more equitable renewal—if

we can get it right this time.

In an election year, you’ll hear politicians of

all stripes speak admiringly about the contribu-

tions of entrepreneurs. It’s true, there’s strength in

numbers: Small and midsize businesses (defined as

those with fewer than 500 workers) employ about

half of all working Americans and at last count con-

tributed 44% of the country’s gross domestic prod-

uct, according to government statistics.

Look past the flattering rhetoric and equally flat-

tering figures, and you’ll find a more troublesome

trend. Over the past two decades, entrepreneur-

shipsawa strangelyparadoxicalevolutioninthe

U.S.Culturallyit becameromanticized,ashigh-

profile tech startups and charismatic young found-

ers disrupted industries and created a new class of

capitalist celebrity hero (see Musk, Elon).

You’ve heard the hype: the WeWork offices