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I've dipped my toe in every industry category I can think of - Financial services, Information Services, Retail, Distribution, Accounting, Customer services, Medicine, Law and Manufacturing. I've been financially successful every time. Wow, what a ride!!! What great fun I've had. I'd rather do what I did than be king of the world. In a sense I was. To the young entrepreneurs who will pick up the gauntlet and carry on - create the future that everyone else will be dumbfounded by when it arrives.

Schumpeter describes the entrepreneur's as a Creative Destruccions, because our ideas destroys the obsolete companys and ideas of the world. We are the motor of society and the engine who moves any economy around the world.

I personally feel that entrepreneurship isn't expressed enough to young people, particularly around the age of middle school. I know that we were pretty much taught to do good in school, go to college and get a good job when we were growing up. I knew that people owned businesses, but it never really occurred to me that I could until just a few years ago (and I'm nearly 27). Fostering the entrepreneurial spirit from a younger age will help young people growing up to expand their horizons and contributions to the community and the economy.

I'm hoping that schools will start to teach a little more of this, and I'm personally working on plans to develop a non-profit to aid with this.

I also agree with Catherine from Springfield, OR. We do so much for other countries that we don't seem to do enough of right here at home. I know there are plenty of start-ups that could use a hand in the funding area, but with the way the banks are these days it's nearly impossible to get a loan. Why can't we have as much faith in our home-grown entrepreneurs as we do in entrepreneurs from other countries? Kiva is a wonderful program, but our entrepreneurs here at home deserve the same opportunities. It isn't easy to start a business here just because we're in the US. It can be quite difficult in fact, and our entrepreneurs deserve a little help as well.

If we focus on education, I would love to test the opinion that entrepreneurship education/research misses the mark in part due to 1) its preoccupation with economic events (business start-up in particular) and 2) that entrepreneurs practice their unique set of traits and methods continually over the course of their lives.

My contention is that entrepreneurship is a process that deals more with how people act (or could act) in transitional stages of their lives and as such, is an intense, brief series of episodes over the life course.

If this observation is remotely accurate, then entrepreneurship education should be refocused to give students the entrepreneurial tools (critical thinking, opportunity recognition, idea feasibility testing, resource gathering, etc.) that they can adapt in accordance with the change demands exerted from all of their subsystems--not just in relation to economic and/or career choices.

Anyone else feel the same way?

As the Founder of a national women's organization of women entrepreneurs, its to our discretion to identify what innovative and creative concept will benefit in starting a business. Its all about the mindset of knowing how important it is to be build your wealth but help create jobs that will help strengthen our economy. We live in a country where "the world is our oyster". We can be what we want, start what we want, make the money we want. I challenge you all that are not and those that are entrepreneurs, take the pledge. I am an Entrepreneur Extraordinaire!

Being an entrepreneur has been the most rewarding decision that I have ever made. Don't get me wrong, everyday isn't peaches and cream. But, I get the opportunity to learn from not only my mistakes but through success literature, I learn from the mistakes of others that have come before me. The most important thing is to "stick to it and stick together". We can all learn and earn by working together through the various social networking platforms made available to us. Additionally, if entrepreneurs can develop their business as a "social enterprise" the positive results are shared within communities etc.

Tonight, I read all the posted comments on the site.
A number of steps need be taken to move to the solutions requested in many of the comments.
I challenge the editorial discretion noted above... let's rally this Entrepreneurial Community with a symbolic - yet necessary - first step:
In recognition of July 4th, I encourage each entrepreneur to thoughtfully ponder the importance of the Declaration of Independence's words and how those words apply to ourselves and the opportunity available to each of us every day.

We have created internet franchisees for all aspiring entrepreneurs, sole-proprietors, and all brick and mortar mom and pop shops looking to increase there revenue during store hours. its all about local business, local community, helping your own neighbors in whom most of us dont even know.

I have been in startup mode for 6 years! Why? Because I quit my job with one large contract, and it wasn't enough to sustain all the costs I ran into. Plus I went into an unwise real estate investment with an entrepreneur friend - big mistake, but at least we can collect rent.

The point here, though, is that someone (Chuck) pointed out that we have to have more than complaints here. We need solutions. Anyone willing to tabulate all of the "issues" so that we can put them into a coherent white paper, what needs to be fixed in Entrepreneurship America? My problem is that I don't have enough to show to qualify for a loan that isn't secured against my home, which I won't do. There are so many costs small businesses bear, such as (at least in my state) having to pay a $100 annual fee just to have your business name remain on the business register, double Social Security payments, even if just for one employee. I did manage to get around the employee health insurance issue by establishing a collaborative business model. I provide a create integrated public relations/communication service, so I have assembled a team of independent entrepreneurs who come together on a project-team basis as required. I would love to hire employees, but the tax advantages offered right now aren't enough to offset the costs, not to mention the constant fear of making payroll every week.

At any rate, if someone wants to note the problems noted here, and any solutions suggested, I'd be happy to put it into a white paper format. That's one of the things I do as a writer.

Hi, Good to have received the invitation to be part of this group. I have also pledged my support. I guess we can have a larger theme and support Entrepreneurs in general so that any economic activity in South America will trigger Fin Markets in North America and new opportunities there can impact India and growth in India can be huge opportunity for UK / US .. So, today we are in a real flat world. Thought will share this. Best Regards on your initiative. Sridhar, Entrepreneur

All of the old rules have changed. Ten years ago, in order to get clients, you just looked for them...called them up...made an appointment, etc. Now you can't get anyone on the phone...and if you do happen to talk to a business owner, they are not interested in any sales appointments. My IT business almost faltered because I was trying to make the old rules work.

Found Meetup.com and started networking, which saved my business. I now work through the NY Entrepreneurs Business Network to help other startups start up.

Granted, paper work, absurd laws, government and oil, pharma and food are blocking us -- but we can do business with each other if we know each other. We can do this while we are working to change our environment from one of suppression to one of freedom.

In contemporary society, entrepreneurs are the only leaders pushing forth a new and visionary economic success. As the industrial age of our nation comes to a close through means of outsourcing to nations which can produce products and/or services for a lower cost, we must look to the information age which began in the 1980's and the transition to a new American workforce, planted heavily in service industries and intellectual property. For example, as Americans, we must realize that we cannot rely on manufacturing cheaper products, or providing services in which the international market can produce for a lower price; instead, we must pride ourselves on our ability to create new markets through an intellectual process. Because America has always been based on freedom and rewards those who take risks, we have created a culture envied and copied by other countries, from our movie stars, to our lifestyles, even to the horrible fast-food we have created. Ultimately, all the envy for our highly successful nation may fade without the consistent creation of new intellectual property, innovation, and business leadership in the form of entrepreneurship. In fact, if one were to look to the exact definition of economy, it states, "economy is made up of land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship." A country may have land, a country may have labor, and a country may even have large sums of capital, but without entrepreneurship to tie all of the resources together, a country has no ability to lead, but simply an ability to follow.

I strongly believe our youth needs an outlet where they can learn about entrepreneurship. At the college I attend, most individuals don't understand that almost every type of career involves business and that learning about owning/operating a business can be a key success factor for achieving one's dreams. Additionally, mature entrepreneurs sometimes aren't aware of the professional guidance they can receive, such as counseling services provided through the Small Business Development Centers.

Would anyone be able to share information about grants for fostering entrepreneurship?

Beaurocracy is the biggest challenge to entrepreneurs. They have to have true conviction in their hearts to be able to "burn" through red tape and all kinds of "no" responses to something that makes a difference. You need to find the right person who can give you that "yes", a person of true authority. Then, with the green light for you, the entrepreneur can blaze ahead and create opportunity.

I feel like there is an unspoken rule that the people who come up with an entrepreneurial idea are supposed to be the ones that implement the idea, and that prevents numerous small businesses from getting off the ground because different people have different talents and coming up with an idea doesn't translate into the funds and skills to make that idea a reality. Therefore, I think there needs to be a secure forum in which entrepreneurs specialization execution or inspiration or both can collaborate with each other to turn as many ideas into viable businesses as possible, with all contributors being fairly compensated for their contribution. Such a forum would need to be more complex than a string of comments such as this but probably would not be prohibitively complicated.

If such a forum already exists, or if someone creates said forum after reading this post, I would like to know about it.

I agree with Chuck Johnson - I believe the founders of this incredible place created this area to unite people to do something productive - not just free form dumpt thoughts to complain or comment.

The only way we are going to build this stronger america is if we start stating ideas, offering ways to implement them, or establishing a voting system so we can vote on which ones we would all like to see happen - and then form small miniteams to start taking action to make them happen. This should be a productive place. It seems like it's not going anywhere. There needs more structure.

I am an entrepreneur who likes to make things happen. I liken Chuck Johnson is too - so let's see if we can switch this tone around a bit here - so potential new joiners stick around and rally behind us for the long run.

I also don't think this place was meant as an 'open solicitation to tell us about your business' forum. There are a zillion other forums and free places on the internet to do that.

So the person sharing about their olive oil business - it's a bit pushy and I didn't join this group to read about your business. Just state the suggestion and sans all the details of your business.

I joined so that I could make an impact and present ideas backed with a potential plan or forward action. It would be great to see all that happening on here. That's how my colleagues and I work anyway.

So let's sift through what has been presented so far and see if any of us want to move forward to take action on them - or flush the ideas out a bit more to see if they are feasible and viable to spend time on.

I have a few of my own - but mine as well start with what we have and take it from there. No point adding more to the list if what people have offered might get overlooked b/c it goes too far down the thread.

Not trying to be harsh here - but my time is valuable - and if I am going to dedicate time to this because I really believe in this -it's to do something - make an impact, create the change. Otherwise, I will just pursue my own missions and not participate on here - and be doing that anyway.

Being the owner of two successful startups that have been going for four years now, there is one issue that sets my hair on fire on a yearly basis; 1099's. The IRS requires that the forms be typed out using a manual typewriter. I do not personally know of a single person who still owns one. I am told, which I do not know the veracity of said statement, that the IRS checks employer versus employee 1099's by placing them on a light table... REALLY?!?

Why not set up form fillable PDF documents that can be uploaded to the IRS? These could be set up to be read into a database and then the verification set up through said database, automatically.
In my case I wasted a full day on this issue, once again, then had to send the information to my accountant in order to submit the forms, incurring a $90 charge.

If one were to multiply out the man hours wasted, not to mention fees incurred, at the hundreds of thousands of small business's nationwide on a yearly basis due to this requirement, it boggles the mind. This anachronistic and foolhardy practice that the government forces small business to perform on a yearly basis, when after all, they are just trying to do the right thing by hiring other self employed business people and reporting their recompense, is yet another example of how we, as the entrepreneurs who drive this economy, are not in any way catered to by a government stuck in the 20th century.

In a business environment in which every step of my workflow is done digitally, it is high time the IRS joined us in the 21st century!

So you want a solution? A direction. I feel the food industry is where to start...and the sooner the better...4 olive us.
If there is one place corporations do not belong it is in our food supply!!!!
Profits and cheaper food means sick people. Naturally grown food creates brilliance, brings enlightenment and the gift of health.
It has been a tool for a clear mind for more than 40 years.
I make organic olive oil here in California and am forming a food based community on 100 acres. Our culture could use some earth sense...like common sense. I am looking for an entrepreneur team wanting to run the business, live simply on the land and live life's bliss cooperatively.
99% of our olive oil is imported in this country. California olive oil is where California wine was 50 years ago...growing fast (thanks to the Spanish plantings) I need a team to make a noble vision manifest 4 olive us.

We should have an organization like KIVA. They make micro-loans to entrepreneurs in third world countries which are paid back as the business is able, on your honor. There is a high success rate. Why can't we do that in this country? The loan amounts should be greater, since the cost of living here is considerably greater. But the principle is the same. Let's support our people at home, and see what they can do!

After 8 years of hard work, taking care of family responsibilities, I am ready for my dream...BYOB entrepreneur which is in my family blood:

However, the situation is so unique hopeless, daunting, killing... everybody is against my project: my daughters, wife, friends the hole world! I say here I am either I will die or win the the world I am going ahead..."Spartan don't ak where are the Romans THEY LOOK FOR THEM." I alone am responsible and all risks, hardship and calamities I challenge to come my way I will melt them!

Here is the beginiing and all can join sharing knowledge and experience is the fundamental strenght of our country we don't hide....

Every state can have this project: Green Bubble School field Trip Center create a field trip centre for every two or three counties there are thousnads of counties what traditionally schools have been doing is taking students to the same place for school field trip for the last 50 years...Give athem an opportunity to visit or experience a totally new opportunity and all will be benefitted take my word

Long live America and her entrepreur spirit here i come.

I am $19 000.00 in debt but ready to start my own world watch me! my fellow Americans! And this is just the small beginning! a first step!

GARY PANCHOLI CARY NC 3-24-2010

Good Idea! Dee Miller of Hope, Idaho stated:
"entrepreneurs should unite and write their own legislation for Congress to submit as a bill" ... one of the most important thing she said was " ....submit what you require with specificity". So think about it? Can you convert your gripe into a productive solution?

What I would like to see in this blog site from entrepreneurs and inventors are gripes and problems stated in the form of a solutions that can be drafted into law. We need to make a difference and it needs to be soon, United we Stand.

Someone on another page who is an inventor wants the cost of Patent protection reduced. That is a great idea, that could kick start the economy and can easily be drafted into law.

The anarchists need to get off this site.

The only way out of this recession is through the growth of small business. They are the one's who create jobs in this country. I have been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and have the scars to prove it. The last 10 years I have been working with start ups and small business as a marketing consultant. Two years ago I came to the conclusion that were missing the boat big time in the way we help entrepreneurs succeed. We all know they need money. That is a given. But what a lot of them also need is engineering help, marketing help, management help and so on. Well today location is no longer a problem. Therefore a new medical device start up in Idaho could use the help of a medical device engineer in South Florida. The problem is they don't know each other. The facts are it's not what you know sometimes it's who you know. I hear it all time time from my clients. They ask me if I know someone in their business who could help them out. America is great at helping out other countries and people and that is great. We have a huge resource of people in this country who could help our entrepreneurs succeed including the 75 million baby boomers with over 30 years experience.

People helping people is what it's all about. When that happens you get back ten fold and all kinds of opportunities open up. It is my passion to help Grow America by connecting up experienced professionals who can help our entrepreneurs succeed.

It would be a great idea if the powers that be wake up and see that we can put America Back To Work. We can create jobs. We have a simple solution. Let the entrepreneurs do what they do best. Circulate the flow of money, and get the economy flowing again. We have the programs ready to go, How much longer do we have to wait to get the financial support that we need?

Do you know that US eliminate the use of paint containing lead since 1978? Well, but China is using paint containing lead right now and exporting goods(Toys, Furniture, Tools, Appliances, etc) to US, Why? Because China don't have rules.

Do you know that in the California State, for example, an Entrepreneur to starting a business want to get 19 Federal,State and City Permits, meanwhile in China not need nothing? US want to go to World Trade Organization with an intelligent proposal to fit equal rules to Trade with China.

We want to avoid the flood of goods of China. Some years ago I worked in an The Home Depot Store and I verified that 90 of each 100 items in stock for sale has been imported from China....How the small,medium of big American Companies can survive in this scenario?

Entrepreneurship has been evidenced as the driver of the US economic growth from the start of the industrial revolution. It is hinged on our unique and sometimes complicated education system that supports expression of ideas that lead to innovation.

The failure of our society to recognize the decline in scientific minded graduates coupled with a growing trend in Washington to be bugged down by minutia instead of rationalizing and compromising to come up with policies to capitalize on the effects of globalization, we are adrift as a nation.

We as Americans are being handcuffed by policy more and more as the rest of the world frees up regulations to foster innovation. For the first time, the US is looking a some level of brain drain as more and more innovators leave for more fertile grounds.

The test will be whether we allow a few financial and a few industrial organizations to control our government and economy. We still have a chance to innovate ourselves to the top of the world but only time will tell. The key areas where we could excel are environmental, energy and aerospace.

However, as a very small business that depends on a vibrant economy, I am stuck with no source of financing other than my own and now friend in government, so i will keep plugging and hope for the best. Things have sure changed since the 1990's.

To avoid from roots the current economic crisis The White House and The Congress must be understand that the first priority is to define an Competitivity Index to be applied to China imports.The small, medium o big America Corporation can not to compete with Slave salaries in an economic, politic and social totalitary sysstem like China.

Our economy has reached the point where it cannot sustain itself without the support of venture capital and entrepreneurs to create new industry. Unfortunately however, the banking industry is not legally allowed to supply venture capital to create the necessary innovation. Rather than dumping the vast quantities of money managed by the banking industry into mortgages and creating situations such as sub-prime mortgages, that money needs to be funneled into creating new industry, something for which debt funding alone is incapable of. The truth is, without removing this de facto ban on innovation, our economy will continue to deteriorate indefinitely. It is the responsibility of every individual to make sure this does not happen. We need to make sure that innovation is possible. We need to make sure that the American dream is possible and for everyone.

Entrepreneurs need resources, guidance and support. They need practical reality based training showing the truth about starting a business and building it so that it will last. Those who hype how to make millions without really working hard, and those who preach everyone can do it...need to be exposed as the frauds they are.

We have started [a website] as an educational resource and we seek articles, interviews and honesty from successful entrepreneurs to show how the math matters, how the funding is hard to acquire, and to show how much time it really takes to climb the mountain. We have to stop the almost fifty percent of people who start companies that fail causing hardship for owners and investors.

Herman

I am an entrepreneur. Unlike most of the US population, I was not caught off-guard when the recession came -because I am also a student of Austrian economics & subscribe to the writings of Dr. Ron Paul & Mr. Peter Schiff. So, despite having my own personal financial crisis involving an unscrupulous business associate in 2007 (who is now in jail); -I managed to leverage over +3000% return from my humble savings -that I diverted into a specific investment when I saw the writing on the economic wall. I am all about risk-taking & delayed gratification. I also know from years of personal study that government is generally the problem --a severe one. Not only do government policies get in the way due to the backdoor agendas built into them, --but the rhetoric of government taints the minds of the public & generally blinds people to alternative ways of thinking about issues -even discouraging such talk. Earth shaking ideas always change society & it's the result of the paradigm-shift that spawns new innovations. But what happens in a society resistant to change (so resistant that government policy has indirectly locked in place the status-quo)? Just reading over the posts here -it's obvious to me that many of the contributors have been mesmerized by government-speak; --But I can tell you (law being a hobby of mine) -that much of what I read about taxes, regulations & things like patents are spoken from ignorance of the actual law about such matters and that DC does not have nearly the level of control that many people imagine it does. It's like watching a dog -held captive without a boundary by a collar that emits a sound when the dog gets near the boundary-line. And the irony is that all the other dogs bark frantic warnings when they hear rumor of the collar's sound --providing merely the peer pressure of fear to keep the dog inside an intangible fence. Let me cue you in on a secret: +90% of the time -the collar only makes a noise & can do nothing else. And having said that +90% of those reading won't believe it. And when those +90% of people -held in a mental prison set down by a matrix of misleading legal-language are also those who are "investors", -they will choose not to invest because some barking dog is freaking out about a boundary line that in reality -is an illusion (does not exist). There is an old saying -that "The truth will set you free."; --BUT ONLY the truth you KNOW. I just wanted to preface with that commentary. My invention (that I am seeking a QUALITY industry partner to venture jointly with) -reduces the energy wasted by the conventional clothes dryer -some 50-80%. The savings figures are quite impressive. The installation (via contractor) is very affordable. And the payback to the home owner is roughly 2-4 years based on use. My background in energy-management & control systems dates back to 1986 when I was doing computer-based, state-of-the-art system design. Fundamentals never change. My ideal partner would be an existing business with a solid personnel connection to the electricity-generation industry (which, -I'm told, -has the most to gain from innovations that can reduce the demand on the grid by GIGAwatt hours). - Good day.

@Thompson New York...very interesting remarks. You must be unfamiliar with Socrates who made plain that the state is the only way private property can exist. It alone can employ police forces to protect private property, and run courts to mediate harm, and taxes have to be paid to maintain that protection. Under your scenario, the only people who will keep their property are the ones who can hire their own private police forces. Are you one of those?

So was Callicles, who was instrumental in getting Socrates put to death. He didn't like the idea that this "state" would curtail his personal liberties to be a thug against those physically weaker than him. Although quite possibly not mentally weaker!

Good luck in Thompson's America! Not good for entrepreneurs who want to devote their lives to creating livelihood and chances of wealth for themselves.
That was also part of Socrates' argument. You'll never get people to do their most productive work when they can be robbed blind anytime by a Thug force!

And there are plenty of others who have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated with this idea over the last decades since Goldwater. Goldwater's boys definitely have the private security on their ranches. And jets. And helicopters.

Too bad it won't hold up very long against the tides of history! And very bad for getting people to be self-determinist and creative!

There are two dominant themes in the majority of the comments here; they are (1) the stifling of innovation to meet the many challenges facing us today due to governmental bureaucratic obstacles in place for the benefit of large business to discourage competition from small business and (2) the crippling costs of doing business for entrepreneurial start-ups. At the same time, it is publicly acknowledged by Congress and the President that small business is being looked to as the golden goose that can lay the golden egg of our economic recovery. It follows than that the entrepreneurs should unite to lobby (by their shear number; not money) the Congress and President to do what they need to do to create the environment that will encourage, or at least allow without these unreasonable obstacles, entrepreneurs to accomplish our recovery as they are best suited to do. I know there are many associations and alliances you may already belong to. If each of you would contact any of the organizations you belong to and direct their leaders to join together in order to unify your voices, it would be a lot easier and less time consuming than to each write your congressional delegations - which may or may not get read - but a consortium of business peoples' association very publicly demanding that Congress address and meaningfully correct these important defects could not be ignored. Since the large businesses and industry organizations write their own legislation for Congress to submit as bills, it would be good to submit what you require with specificity as well. If you leave it to them, they won't give you what you want, if they ever would get around to it. A survey of members' priorities would be followed by a vote to sort out the highest priority amongst them and would be the way to find a starting point. Determine by democratic process the top three priorities. Once those are accomplished, take up the next important until the list is worked through.

The best thing for entrepreneurs will be the collapse of the Big Monopolistic Coercion Machine: the state. The best thing we can do to hasten its overdue demise is to simply ignore it. Business owners, start producing and trading off the books and off the Record. Individuals and employees, offer to work and make more purchases OTR! The less the state consumes in its insane bureaucracy, the more we're left with - and the more in turn we can produce next month. The cure for this recession is not before our eyes but behind them.

We are the way out not the government, and change is the only thing that's constant.

Many current industries and government departments alike, need to simply die and fade away, and thereby give light to the kind of innovation and problem solving that makes America Great.

The most pressing thing that I feel that entrepreneurs need first is radically reduced bureaucracy overall, then encouraged, open, and willing connections to like minded people who can serve as both experienced partners ("been there, done that") and to those financially able to help, as they recognize and actually invest, time, experience, and money into trending opportunities and potential future profits, without looking like the typical VC extortion types of lending that are prevalent currently.

Access to innovative micro sized business capital, possibly including government guarantees for that capital would be good, and makes good sense, if the government really wants business expansion from it's purest point of origin.

And lastly we need a simple and flat and "fair tax" structure so that when someone does figure out a way to earn a dollar by filling a need and serving others, they actually earn "a dollar" without fear of how much of that dollar the government will take, or contemplating how that dollar will be treated by a complicated, bloated and confusing tax code that serves few and stresses many.

Back to basics, and the free flow of ideas and capital without all the social engineering "we want this to happen" kind of strings.

We argue in favour of an experimental laboratory approach as a way of accelerating the creation, incubation and testing of new venture ideas by establishing a micro-ecosystem of aspiring entrepreneurs and others in a business labs environment. The goal is to create a mini idea supercollider where a microscopic “Medici Effect” can be achieved where aspiring entrepreneurs with different ideas, experience and disciplines meet in a spirit of open innovation with the sum of the whole much greater than the sum of each of the individual parts. The creation of an ecosystem for idea creation and rapid testing using business simulation tools can accelerate the creation, mobilization and diffusion stages of the knowledge life cycle in a knowledge driven entrepreneurship venture while de-risking potential ventures before significant capital is applied.
Martin Curley and Piero Formica

Mr. Schramm focused his comments on the individual as the entrepreneurs. Secretary Locke focused on institutions as a source. But likely the "Ford" entrepreneur will not come from an institution. Secretary Locke didn't mention how we are to spur on these entrepreneurs, Mr. Schramm did, and he's on the money. As entrepreneurs we need to be able to show spectacular returns to interest risk takers. Any way the spreadsheet can be enhanced with a spectacular tax break to place more of the income to the bottom line, the more likely is a risky idea to be funded. But as long as people like Mr. Schramm and Secretary Locke work together, we get the multiplier effect of that team, and it takes a team to execute.

As an mechanical and chemical engineer for over 40 years and an inventor nearly all that time, I have never seen a product that can't be improved, even my own (ahem), some very significantly with only a simple change. Considering we are importing some $400 in oil a year (70% of use), obviously there is unlimited opportunities in energy. That's where I'm focused because that will help America get back on its feet in a big way. We have to pay our bills somehow, and it's going to take a lot of "Fords" to do it, and energy can create them.

Communicating the big idea is a problem, however. The web sites that cater to inventions for nominal consumer products are not going to help. A Web site is needed that just caters to several $billion sales ideas because there is no better way for them to get attention if these ideas are by individual entrepreneurs. Again, as Mr. Schramm says, it is individual entrepreneur that will be starting the businesses that matter to job growth. The reason is corporations just fear for their existing order books, entrepreneurs create the order books with the potential for hyper growth.

As a person who works with start-ups everyday though a thriving business incubation program, I am really pleased to see this focus on the most important part of economic recovery – entrepreneurship. Great data in this survey, but two more years of recession..ouch.

Our Business Model Abstract: We can improve lives by mobilizing the mentoring power by using public libraries to create a Library Progress Administration. The Library hub infrastructure has the basic facilities, services, and installations needed to create sustainable jobs by mobilizing entrepreneurial mentoring services. We seek underutilized learning space in community libraries to create ecological-entrepreneur job opportunities. By providing access to entrepreneur mentoring and by localizing the innovation process, we can create better communities. We will regenerate our local economy through growing entrepreneur startups. Entrepreneurs can provide the innovations needed to build clean-technology startup organizations. The opportunity is not to build the rare high-risk scaling organization but to quickly build innovative entrepreneurial startups. Startups will help solve ecological and employment problems that threaten our very existence.

Since 2000 we have passed a number of laws and regulations that are killing innovation in the US. The incredible innovation of the 90s was based on technology start-up companies built on intellectual capital, financial capital, and human capital. All three of the pillars have been under attack since 2000. Our patent laws have been weakened reducing the value of intellectual capital. Sarbanes Oxley has made it impossible to go public reducing financial capital for start-ups and the FASB rules on stock options have made it harder to attract human capital to start-ups.

As the job creators, entrepreneurs really are the answer to digging us out of this difficult economic mess. Innovation is critical, but so are tax cuts for small businesses. If entrepreneurs aren't able to create more jobs, we're going to have to cut them, which will put our country in an even more compromising state. Locke's support is great but the government needs to get serious about making changes that will tangibly help America's small businesses.

Innovation plays such a critical role in entrepreneurship. Secretary Locke's comments regarding more investment in innovation and entrepreneurship are a step in the right direction.