The Entrepreneurial Spirit
9 February 2009
I drew the long straw here at old Wellington Financial and had the pleasure of attending the Annual Florida Venture Forum last week in Naples.
I don’t know about you, but amongst my friends, family and colleagues, we have spent considerable time over the last 5 months debating whether or not the U.S. economy has seen its best days. The points of view have ranged from; the U.S. economy and its entrepreneurs are the most resilient in the world and will find their way out of this like they always do to; cheap and easy debt has fueled the incredible creation of wealth and without that fuel, the flames of the U.S. economy will burn just like every other 1st world nation’s with steady but unspectacular growth prospects for the long term. I will admit to being in the latter camp.
I can report that after spending two and a half days with 600 entrepreneurs, VCs and the various service providers who support the industry, the spirit of the U.S. entrepreneur is alive and well. Everyone I met and listened to at the conference acknowledged the tough place they are all in. But the determination, resiliency and can do attitude was extremely invigorating. They do drink different water down there. After attending the conference, I am much more optimistic that better days lie ahead. Obama’s inauguration message of pulling up your socks and working harder to get through this was resonating with the conference attendees.
Our economy and society have different strengths that our counterparts south of the 49th parallel – but spirit of the U.S. entrepreneur is something we can all learn from – no problem or obstacle cannot be overcome.
FMU
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2 Responses to “The Entrepreneurial Spirit”
February 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Hear! Hear!
The minute the election closed out, and the year thankfully ended, we were all preparing for the best, and hoping for the best. It takes dusting off those cash management skills and looking at things closer, but in our discussions with clients, friends, and even watching our lawyers behave differently, everyone can learn from this – and there is so much money on the sidelines, and so much planning being done to deploy it, the discounts are in and its time to place your bets. And better your plan for presentation.
What an opportunity to have to renew fundamentals of investing: to now think of the long-term, and plan more soundly and stick to your core sector, and capture market share in industries that are shiny and were always – it was just too crowded for the great mindset of the inventors and capitalists to stand out among the traders of mortgages, media frenzy, bad big spenders in gov’t, you name it.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I agree..there are many opportunities to exploit instead of hiding under a matress! I see an abundance of deals everyday and I think matching them to the appropriate group can serve to be a new paradigm in this economic cycle we’re in. I see an online, web enabled marketplace populated by equal measures of brilliance and ignorance, let’s face it, anyone can write a blog. Whether there’s substance behind it remains to be seen. However, if we can utilize the web for transactional efficiencies, we can understand that the cyber world will be the new marketplace for deal flow, no matter if its a start up or a large offering.