Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-06-29)

(Antfer) #1

E C O N O M I C S


● SiliconValleyhijacked the
conceptfortheprivilege
ofa few.Thepresentcrisis
affordsanopportunityto
redefineit soit’smoreinclusive

● 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
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