Post-Inauguration Day, Americans are predicting and evaluating their new leaders and policies being implemented. While those are important, there is something even more important that we have an opportunity to promote in 2025: A renewed culture of entrepreneurship.
We have heard about many proposed policies and negotiations that will affect the economy at large. Some are for the better, such as proposed deregulation, tax incentives for business, and negotiations with other leaders and countries to invest more in the United States (like the $500 billion “Stargate” project). Others are for the worse, such as far-reaching tariffs.
But what matters even more than such policy proposals would be for American leaders to foster a renewed culture of entrepreneurship. This matters because, for entrepreneurship and businesses to flourish, we need more than just policy; we need a hopeful narrative about the future and an appreciation of entrepreneurs’ role in society and how they create more paths to human flourishing by enabling upward economic mobility.
While there is nothing wrong with big businesses, we need a healthy dose of businesses of all sizes to have a dynamic and flourishing economy. Contrary to popular belief, it is not established business that creates more net new jobs; new fast-growing businesses generate the majority of net new jobs in a society.
But, business dynamism has been in decline since the 1970s. There are many reasons for this decline, including patent litigation, an increase of regulations, and an expansion of occupational licensing. But we can’t discount a more vibe-themed reason for the culture of entrepreneurship being in decline.
A culture of entrepreneurship values achievement and success—whether it be through profit, finding a solution to a societal problem, or just meeting the demand of consumers for different goods and services. At the moment, the vibe (as young people say) across America is that entrepreneurs and billionaires are policy failures and that achievement and success are frowned upon, even sometimes by entrepreneurs themselves.
A culture of entrepreneurship is about a win-win-win worldview that creates more paths to human flourishing. A win-win-win mindset considers the value added and positive-sum thinking behind an entrepreneur’s success, the jobs they create for their employees, and how those jobs in turn help families and society at large. It is crucial for society to realize that, through their work, entrepreneurs enable others to pursue their dreams, find employment, achieve upward mobility, and even discover their life’s purpose.
For decades and even centuries, entrepreneurs have been guided by a sense of purpose which makes it a key feature of a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship. As recent psychological research confirms, purpose and meaning are key drivers of entrepreneurship. That same research also found that, when potential entrepreneurs believe they can live a meaningful life, they are more motivated to pursue their visions and view their work as helping to solve problems in society. The result of this purpose-driven entrepreneurship is often the unleashing of creative, imaginative solutions to a wide variety of challenges.
A culture of entrepreneurship is a culture that values human agency and overcoming obstacles, regardless of where an individual starts. That is at the center of concepts such as “the American Dream,” and it lies at the center of the “Hero’s Journey” of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs find meaning in their work and are constantly trying to take flight with their businesses. Venture capital investor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman equates being a startup entrepreneur to jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down.
A culture of entrepreneurship requires that we see entrepreneurs and successful people not as policy failures, but as wealth creators and enablers of more paths to human flourishing—both for their employees and for what their products and services enable consumers and users to accomplish.
One example is Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon 30 years ago. He found his purpose by empowering customers and enhancing their customer experience through the internet revolution.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has become the first private company to send human beings into space. In recent months, SpaceX has restarted spacewalks and will soon rescue astronauts stuck at the International Space Station. Then there is Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which has created communications support for people facing natural disasters.
Sam Walton founded Walmart eight decades ago. The company is now the world’s largest employer, enabling many of its employees to find paths to flourishing. Very appropriately, their current CEO started as an associate and climbed his way up to the company’s top job.
Joe Lonsdale, through his investment firm 8VC, is investing in companies that are using biotechnology to produce cures for the world’s most challenging diseases and health issues. More recently, Lonsdale has been behind the creation of the University of Austin in Texas, which is in the business of fearlessly pursuing truth.
We need to reignite a culture that appreciates, honors, and elevates entrepreneurs like these individuals. By telling their stories and giving them the credit they deserve, we inspire others to do the same thing in the future.
Why? Because we want the next Elon Musk to come to America. Because we want the next Jeff Bezos to leave their corporate job and start the next Amazon. Because we want the next Sam Walton to think they can take on the big, inefficient players.
That doesn’t come about from individual policies; it comes from culture. That’s why we need a culture of entrepreneurship.
Gonzalo Schwarz is president and CEO of the Archbridge Institute. Alexander McCobin is founder and CEO of Liberty Ventures and Principled Business.