Enthusiasm for entrepreneurship

A few years ago, I took a Harvard Business School course on entrepreneurship. I have never been in a place with so many like-minded individuals from every corner of the globe. We were all entrepreneurs.

I was also amazed by how these individuals from around the world were attuned to our culture -- “Americanized” as one attendee described it. They seemed to know everything that was going on in our national news, from sports, to fashion, to politics. They also respected America's culture of capitalism and free enterprise, which is something you don't hear often as business and corporate leaders are so often demonized in the media. Even Hollywood usually poses the businessman as the bad guy.

The course was refreshing and it got me to thinking...Where have all the American entrepreneurs gone? U.S. entrepreneurs and the startup companies they create are critical to healthy economic growth, but the annual number of startup companies has been falling for decades.