As the title indicates, I will address the roles of entrepreneur in society. As elementary as this topic may sound, reflecting on naive questions can be tremendously enlightening.
I have met many entrepreneurs. Most of them were intelligent and knowledgeable on many subjects except their job. Entrepreneurs often get lost in abstract concepts such as "business plans", "scaling", or "optimizing" while completely ignoring their fundamental duty. Having frequently made this observation, I decided to write an article revising the basics.
What is the role of an entrepreneur? To put it simply, the job of an entrepreneur is to create wealth. The entrepreneur not only creates wealth for himself, but also for his investors, his employees, even his customers. When an entrepreneur is successful, the world is a richer place for everyone. Meditate on this last statement a bit and you'll realize the profound effects they have on our lives. Entrepreneurs have the duty of raising our standard of living. Not a trivial matter. Many people who think they are entrepreneurs are really just hustlers. Their concern is to make money, not raise the public standard of living.
So how do entrepreneurs create wealth? They do this in many ways. The first and common method is through cost reducing techniques. Unlike businessmen who simply follow conventional methods of industry, entrepreneurs introduce new techniques of production that yields higher output from lower input. In other words, entrepreneurs find ways of creating more with less.
Entrepreneurs also produce wealth by creating new lines of industry. This means offering a good or service that formerly did not exist, thus adding to the number of activities people can enjoy. This form of wealth creation is even more vital than the previous, for the defining characteristic of a civilization is that its a society that invents. When entrepreneurs stop doing their work, society is no longer expansive. Status quo becomes the norm and progress is at standstill.
This wealth entrepreneurs create by introducing cost saving techniques is first enjoyed by the public, for they can now purchase more goods at a lesser price. It also benefits their investors, for the entrepreneur turned their dollars into an income producing asset. Lastly, the entrepreneur even enriches his employees. For by properly organizing labor, he has raised the human capital of his workers by elevating their skills and experience. The end result is a society with more skilled workers, more products for people to consume, and more capital for future investments.
I hope the role of entrepreneurs has now become clear to you. If you are considering in becoming one, take your newfound duty seriously. Remember, it is by raising the living standards of people that kindness and decency becomes pervasive.
If you are already an entrepreneur, do not lose yourself in "money getting". You are not here to collect coins but to add wealth to the world. Focus your energy on producing something worthy that will improve the well being of your fellow men and women. Too many entrepreneurs look for the easy way out. Solving petty problems in an attempt to get rich. There are diseases that need to be cured, resources that need to be more abundant, and infrastructure problems that are plaguing cities. Pick a worthy problem, make people's lives truly better, and get rich doing something worthwhile.
If you found this article useful, please support me and invest in yourself by getting my book Becoming More Intelligent. In it, I discuss methods to build what I call a 'Custom Mind'. A custom mind is a brain that has the instincts you consciously chose, and has the former instincts you did not like eliminated. In my humble opinion, there is no better investment.
