Give people fish, and you feed them once. Teach them to fish, and you feed them forever.
I’m paraphrasing an old saying. Here’s my updated version:
Give one person a business loan and you help start a business. Teach starting a business, and you help a whole community.
That comes up because I’m doing a training tomorrow for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Women’s Business Centers (WBC). It’s about teaching entrepreneurship.
In these very politicized, polarized, and economically challenged times, it’s a damn shame we don’t all support spending some public money on the teaching and advocacy of entrepreneurship. I’ve seen WBC, SBA, SBDC, and SCORE programs close up. On the front lines, it’s not politicians or bureaucracy, it’s real people with real experience teaching other people how to start, run, and grow their businesses. It’s workshops, counseling, classes, and demystifying the process, setting the steps. And that’s a good thing.
Entrepreneurship is good for the entrepreneurs, the people they hire, and the communities they change. And entrepreneurship is contagious.
(Image: istockphoto.com)
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
