Rejoicing in Our Era of Entrepreneurship
By Adam Frank
There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur than right now — and this is cause for great celebration, because the ability to improve our lives constantly, by making something out of nothing, is what distinguishes human beings from our neighbors on the Earth. It is a defining moment for our species’ defining quality.
At the core, this is true because the rapid acceleration in processing power (reflected in an informal maxim known as Moore’s Law, holding that it doubles every two years) has turbo-charged technological advancements. We now wait only years as opposed to decades or centuries for paradigm shifts. As a result everything from publishing to travel to communication and finance and entertainment is upended — and replaced with what the market says are actually better things.
And some of that disruption attaches directly, in something of a feedback loop, to why this is the era of entrepreneurship: because many more of us now have the tools to act as entrepreneurs of our own product, services and brand.
That’s a game-changer that transcends technology (like, say, graduating from a typewriter to a cloud-based word processor): it changes society. It means an expert is no longer tethered to a specific company, a teacher to a school, an artist to a studio, a comic to a stage, or a journalist to a platform of the legacy media.
If they are enterprising enough they can build entire communities, markets and societies around the innovation, knowledge, charisma and inspiration they offer. This is the future of influence — independent experts, content creators, artists and others who are inspiring the rapidly growing creator economy.
At the company I co-founded, Wisio, we provide a home for such people, who are known as creators. Instead of just producing and distributing content, they can also be mentors, coaches, and potentially friends to the passionate communities that follow them. Wisio helps them build and evolve this mentorship to directly communicate with — and monetize — the audience that appreciates them, at scale and with efficiency.
Entrepreneurship days are marked at various times in various places around the world. In the US, Nov. 16 was declared National Entrepreneurship Day in 2012 by President Obama. It is no surprise that this occurred roughly in alignment with the massive explosion of social media. It is at the core of today’s innovation.
Based on market research and reasonable definitions, we assess that there will be around 120 million creators who essentially started from scratch, as entrepreneurs native to the digital environment, by 2025.
It is them that I salute on this National Entrepreneurship Day!
