Do entrepreneurs benefit the world at all? Learn why are entrepreneurs important in the generation now.

That’s a harsh way to ask that question but it’s also straightforward and to the point. There have been countless heated debates about this topic online and it’s incredibly divisive to say the least. One side thinks that entrepreneurs are saviors of the world who can do absolutely no wrong while the other side thinks that entrepreneurs are the scum of the earth who prey on everything and everyone. 

While hero-worshipping entrepreneurs is a dumb thing to do, calling them outright villains is also downright stupid. This article is going to show you why entrepreneurs are important and how they benefit the world. 

Entrepreneurs improve the world by bringing new and improved products into the market.  

Entrepreneurs start their businesses in order to make a profit first and foremost. To succeed, businesses must either offer a product or service that is already in demand, improve upon existing offerings, or introduce something completely new to the market.

The most important thing that entrepreneurs do to bring about change and improve the world is releasing new, novel products into the market. These can be revolutionary products like cars or rockets or even something simple like an as-seen-on-TV gadget. Entrepreneurs make and sell things to get rich but people buy those things because they make their lives better. Do you see the logic behind how entrepreneurs make regular people’s lives better? 

That’s right. 

Entrepreneurs make people’s lives better because they make Shamwow! 

Speaking of Shamwow, entrepreneurs don’t necessarily need to sell completely new inventions or products. They can take products that are already on the market and improve them further. Shamwow is a new product but it’s basically just a new and improved towel. Thinking about it, cars also fall under this category since they’re just horse carriages that replace the horse with an engine. 

The business world is notoriously competitive and businesses are constantly at each other’s throats for more market share. Competition between entrepreneurs and companies drives them to continuously improve in order to gain more customers. This competition benefits customers since customers have a constant stream of new products to try and those products only get better as time goes on. 

A good example of two competitors constantly innovating and making new things to draw in customers is Cola and Pepsi. For an extended period of time, Cola and Pepsi were releasing new products to outdo each other at every turn. If there was Diet Pepsi, then eventually a Diet Coke would come around. If there was a Coca-Cola Zero, Pepsi Black would eventually come around to try and beat it. 

Because of this competition and constant need to one-up each other, consumers now have an almost endless choice of sodas to choose from. If you’re thinking about choosing a zero-calorie soda, Pepsi Black tastes better than Coca-Cola Zero but that’s a matter of taste!

Entrepreneurs bring innovation and can even bring about entirely new industries.  

Offering a readily available product is good because it ensures there’s never going to be a shortage of that product. Offering a new and improved version of that product is better because now there’s a better choice available to consumers while ensuring there’s more choices available to consumers. While improving already available products is better, entrepreneurs can bring about incredible innovation and even completely new industries in their quest for endless wealth. 

Let’s take a look at a few examples of entrepreneurs that brought about innovation and paved the way for brand new industries. 

1. Henry Ford

Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, he did not invent the car. Don’t give him credit for that. 

What Henry Ford did was make and sell cars that were affordable for regular people in America. Although Henry Ford was initially known for his decent cars, his legacy lies in making automobiles accessible to the average American. Ford’s mass production techniques transformed the automobile industry, making cars a common household item. 

Ford harnessed the power of mass production and put almost every American in a car. Cars are made affordably and efficiently because of the innovations of Henry Ford. Mass-producing cars in factories ensured that there were plenty of them available for consumers and there were plenty of sales for Ford.

At one point in time, almost every car driven in America was a Ford product. While that’s not the case anymore, you can thank Henry Ford for making affordable cars for regular people a thing.  

2. Bill Gates

If you’re reading this article on a laptop or a desktop, you can thank Bill Gates for that.

Bill Gates is the reason that almost the entire world knows how to use a computer. Gates and Windows dominated and won the operating system wars back in the day which is why Windows is currently the most used OS in the world. It’s not just computers and operating systems either. Windows also made a lot of software that the world depends on. 

The world pretty much runs on Excel, Word and Powerpoint. There are other options out there but almost every established government or business uses Windows offerings by default.  You might have forgotten but Windows also makes internet browsers. While Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge probably aren’t your choice of internet browser, they’re both widely used worldwide so should also be considered successes. 

Also, for anyone in that particular generation, Bill Gates is the reason the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox Live were part of your lives. Those last ones might be a good or bad thing depending on who you are.

Check out our article on How To Create A Successful Product As An Entrepreneur.

3. Elon Musk

Now you’re probably thinking why we didn’t put Elon Musk first… it’s because you more than likely were already thinking of him even before you read this part of the article.  

Elon Musk is probably the great entrepreneur of this generation even if he’s a bit of a divisive figure. He’s the entrepreneur behind Tesla as well as SpaceX who make electric cars and rockets respectively. Whether it’s electric cars or colonies on Mars, Elon Musk is quite literally paving the way for the future. 

While he’s most famous for being the face of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has had a hand in quite a few innovative companies. For example, Musk was instrumental in the making of PayPal which is a payment processor used by countless people around the world. Also, he very recently bought Twitter. 

Twitter. He bought a whole social media company because he wanted to. 

Those three entrepreneurs above are just a starting point. There are many more entrepreneurs that helped start new industries for you to read up about. Reading up on these entrepreneurs is both interesting and inspiring.

Where would you start though? Here’s a hint; The video game industry wasn’t started with the Xbox 360 or Xbox. Go find out how the video game industry began!

Entrepreneurs build companies and create jobs. 

Jobs keep people housed and fed. Job creation is important in order to keep people employed. Entrepreneurs and business owners are a key part of a healthy economy since they need workers to make a profit and create jobs.

There are tons of entrepreneurs who start their entrepreneurial journey alone and end it alone. However, many grow and expand their business to the point where they need hundreds to thousands of employees in order to function. These jobs aren’t just important for keeping people employed and fed though. 

Entrepreneurs tend to create more entry-level jobs compared to already established companies. This is important for building up unskilled jobholders and turning them into skilled workers who are in-demand pretty much everywhere. This does two things: 

• Ensures that fresh graduates have a job that allows them to improve themselves. 
• Ensures that eventually, positions that require more highly-skilled workers are filled and aren’t kept vacant. 

As entrepreneurs grow their companies, they hire more and more workers which creates more jobs. The workers in these jobs also grow with the company. They also might eventually start their own companies and this cycle could continue endlessly. The cycle continuing is a good thing for the most part.

If an entrepreneur grows their business into a massive company, it’s no exaggeration to say that they’ve become important by providing jobs for hundreds or even thousands of workers.  

Check out our article on 7 Best Business Movies On Netflix!

Why is entrepreneurship important for the economy?  

By reading the above sections, you should be able to roughly understand why entrepreneurs are important for the economy. But for the sake of clarity, we’ll summarize it again to hammer the point in. 

Entrepreneurs are important for the economy because they can become the driving force behind the economic growth of a country.

Entrepreneurs create new products as well as services which create new jobs. This will speed up the growth of a given country’s economy. Many countries encourage entrepreneurship by giving many benefits to those who have the guts to start a company. These countries don’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it because it’s proven to be beneficial to everyone as a whole. 

A huge problem faced by mature economies these days is what you could call “calcification”. In big and established companies, there’s no room for new workers because the top management is set in stone and the lower rungs of the company need workers with specialized skill sets. Entrepreneurs help solve this problem. 

As mentioned in the section above, new companies that are started by entrepreneurs tend to produce more entry-level jobs. They’ll take anyone who’s willing to work and learn without the need for specialized skill sets. Eventually, as the company grows, so do the workers who gain many transferable skills that they can use to get jobs at other companies or to start their own businesses.

Entrepreneurs also bring about new industries or completely revolutionize older industries. A whole new industry would definitely drive a country’s economy forward by making plenty of money and creating countless jobs. The new products being produced by these new industries would also definitely improve the lives of consumers at the same time. 

Closing   

There are definitely entrepreneurs and businesses out there who are absolutely terrible that deserve all the hate that they get. However, lumping every single entrepreneur together with them and calling them all evil is dumb. Entrepreneurs benefit society and the world in many different ways. Entrepreneurship, especially responsible entrepreneurship, should be applauded and actively encouraged.  
Do you know a fledgling entrepreneur? Give them a pat on the back and tell them to keep going! Are you a fledgling entrepreneur? Keep it going, you’re doing great!