The Road AheadThe entrepreneurship dream [Archives:2003/633/Business & Economy]

Raidan Al-Saqqaf
An entrepreneur is someone who sets up and runs his own small business, willing to take that risk in search for profit. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important concepts in capitalism, because entrepreneurs shift economic resources from an area of lower productivity into an area of higher productivity and greater yield, so that they can earn more money.
Entrepreneurship has become the new great American dream, it is a reason behind some of the dramatic cultural shifts during the last forty years in the United States, people there no longer want to work for two cars and a nice house; given the choice of being the managers of their own companies they opt for the better; to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs.
Can that be our dream too? Yes it can, but that isn't as easy as it sounds. Entrepreneurship needs more than a special collection of skills like the ability to take enormous risks and a great desire to create wealth. In fact, it needs individuals who can spot good business opportunities before they arise, and take advantage of them.
Starting a new business means asking hard questions, questions like ''Is this idea feasible?, why it should / shouldn't work, why am I the one to make it work, what is the worst that can happen, and do I have the right combination for success, and more importantly, do I have the sources of finance and training?, because these two are the biggest setbacks for Yemeni entrepreneurs. Sometimes it seems easier to swim across the ocean than to get a loan. To add, it was found out that most entrepreneurs who had the right formula for success but didn't make it, failed due to financial reasons.
On the other hand, our business education system doesn't help create entrepreneurs; because our business curricula are based on the assumption that students have already enrolled and have jobs, in spite of assuming that students will be the creators and owners of their own businesses.
Many developed countries try to create a positive atmosphere for entrepreneurs in order to encourage their capitalist attempts and wealth creation, because entrepreneurship is the key to economic growth, a country that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship will surly emerge stronger in the future, and this is the dream.
Promoting entrepreneurship in our country can be done through providing guidance from school level to insert the dream of having your own business one day in the minds of tomorrow's entrepreneurs. And provide better financial facilities and training facilities to today's entrepreneurs, and to enhance entrepreneurship education to our unemployed youth to go and create their own jobs. Otherwise, what good is business education if fresh business graduates only load the rate of unemployment, leading us into a situation of jobless economic growth?

Endnote: our ticket to economic revival maybe in the hands of our entrepreneurs, and encouraging them ensures our economic revival, encouraging people to dream of owning their own businesses.
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