The Venture Edge

As you may know, I have been teaching MGT453 -- Creativity and Innovation -- at San Diego State University this semester. It's been a lot of fun, and I suspect I am learning as much about the topic as are my 51 students, most of whom are seniors who will be graduating in the summer of 2012. 

Ready for some good news on the entrepreneurship front? According to a report released last Thursday by the Kauffman Foundation and Young Invincibles, 54 percent of Americans aged 18 to 34 -- the generation commonly known as the millennials -- want to start their own businesses. Okay, there's just one thing. Of this 54 percent, only 8 percent of them own businesses now, and only 11 percent intend to start businesses within the next year. And what about those other 38 percent -- the potential young entrepreneurs who want to start their own businesses but who don't plan to do so anytime soon? Why have they delayed their dreams of entrepreneurship? 

I would like to start by saying that I agree 100 percent with my blog-mate Kathy Allen's last post: It's the private sector, st...d! This so-called economic stimulus plan has become just another boondoggle -- welfare for an ever-growing list of special interests with cozy Congressional relationships. As soon as this river of cash runs out (which it apparently now has), then of course the result will be economic contraction. It's no coincidence that the economic term "double-dip inflation" is suddenly gaining increased attention in the press. 

Paul Edwards -- my friend and coauthor of Home-Based Business For Dummies with his wife Sarah -- sent me an interesting study published this month by the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. The study -- titled The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation -- surveyed 549 company founders in a variety of industries, including services, health care, aerospace and defense, and computer and electronics. And while the results of the study are skewed towards successful entrepreneurs (those entrepreneurs who were at the helm of failed businesses were not a part of this study), they are illuminating nonetheless.