I will try to give at least five reasons why America is a great place to run a business, and I want to start by giving an historical background. It is appropriate to take history as the first reason because you in America have recently celebrated Thanksgiving. But the question is whether you know how the celebration arose?
First time was on 4 December, 1619, in Berkeley Plantation, Charles City in the vicinity of Jamestown, Colony of Virginia. I would suggest that the founding of America was a business venture which was started by a group of entrepreneurs from London, the Virginia Company of London.
Here is an excerpt from The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities site:
“In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish a satellite English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. By December, 104 settlers sailed from London instructed to settle Virginia, find gold and a water route to the Orient.”
My second point is that there is an unique expression used in America regarding entrepreneurship. The term I am referring to is: self-made man. As an inspiration and illustration of how entrepreneurs create fruits of their labor, enjoy Bobbie Carlyle’s
self-made man sculpture. This attitude toward entrepreneurship and the American sense-of-life, provides a good basis for a productive business climate.
The third point I want to make is a combination of the first two reasons. America has from the beginning been a “melting pot” of individuals from all possible corners of the world. The open-minded attitude to the open immigration is a prerequisite for America to continue to be an entrepreneurial country. We need not be born in the country in order to succeed here. We can begin with two empty hands and work our way up to create a business empire.
America is the Land of Opportunity. If the mental attitude were to become that it should close the borders and build a wall around the country and shut out productive individuals who want to create a future, then America soon would come to a standstill and be consigned to the “scrap heap” place. There is a reason why there are so many participating in the green card lottery…
I believe that a further thing that makes that America a good place for business is that there is a sound and transparent discussion on how the taxation should be. Various new forms of alternatives to tax collection have been debated. But of course you are more likely to make amendments to the unnecessarily complicated tax system before the complete derailment of it. We must go back to point 2 and declare that you have the right to the benefits of your work, before you would start phasing out today’s tax system.
My final reason has a link to the preceding point and links all reasons to an overall picture why America is the ultimate country for business. The positive business climate will be able to be defended because there are rational supporters of the free enterprise system. I believe that the individual who has defended capitalism in the best way is philosopher Ayn Rand.
This is a quotation from the essay, An Answer for Businessmen:
“I should like to suggest that you begin by applying to the realm of ideas the same objective, logical, rational criteria of judgement that you apply to the realm of business. You do not judge business issues by emotional standards – do not do it in regard to ideological issues. You don’t build factories by the guidance of your feelings – do not let your feelings guide your political convictions.”
(Excerpted from Why Businessmen Need Philosophy, p. 41 – 42.)
About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego and will soon start a new series of interviews for his podcasting show on the Solid Vox network.
Martin is part of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.
