The Time of the Entrepreneur

America especially had always venerated the entrepreneur. An individual willing to risk it all on creating their own income stream. No boss, no board, no bank. Just the individual doing it all the way. The cowboy. (Cowgirl - cowperson?)This is really what sets the USA apart. I live in Canada, and though we share the same landscape and border, the Canadian mentality is more...what shall we say... more compromising. An American (stereotypically) is driven, ambitious, aggressive and believes 'I can do it, my way god darnit'. A Canadian is more live and let live and lets just all get through this together.In business that tends to mean that Canada has less per person productivity than the USA. Not because Canada is less smart or less anything in any real way, except one. Risk.The stereotypical Canadian will minimize risk (see our banking system which didn't collapse in the economic meltdown, because fat cats and monopolies that they are, they don't like big risk)Now this is generalizing and going for risk after all has allowed the USA to virtually bring down the entire worlds economy, and allowed China to put itself in a very important position economically and possibly will have irretrievable hurt the US in terms of its number 1 ranking for all time - but, thems the breaks.Anyway...Lets get back to the entrepreneur before I ride off in all directions at onceIts a fact, in terms of business, in terms of lifestyle - a successful entrepreneur has everything else beat hands down (except A list Male Hollywood actors perhaps ) (Oh and politicians - a free ride all the way - but -)But an entrepreneur, the concept of an individual making it without the safety net of a job or big company environment, is risky.Most people have jobs because jobs are easier. To get.But jobs have no life attached to them.Most people 'work' because they don't like the risk. Most countries don't do as well, productivity wise, as The US because the population avoids risk.Be the cowboy/cowgirl. The wild spirited one. Its risky, but its a great life.Why?Entrepreneur - The true possibility of financial freedom at best and the reality of financial control of your life, at worst.If you do not control the engine of your income, you have no control. If you have a job, you can be let go fired at any time for reasons that have nothing to do with your work, or accomplishments.If you have a position with a financial ceiling - a job, a tenured position etc, then you can only make what is given, not what you can earn.However -If you create your own business, and you keep at it until it proves successful, and it has scale (that is your earning ceiling is only limited by your ambition) then you have possibilities. Then you can create a lifestyle second to none, because you can have an income stream, independent of you time input. Financial freedom. And an income stream not in the hands of a boss or board.However it will be in the hands of a marketplace, so:Top 3 things to look for in your entrepreneurial search:1) Make it something you want to do. Really want to do - this is how you are going to spend most of your waking hours, make it something that drives you.2) Make sure your business can scale. Up. Examine the marketplace you want to be in, can it sustain you making millions? You might not ever want to make that much. But if you felt like it, could you? And in bad times will that marketplace sustain you?3) Make sure, I repeat, make sure, you can get you time back out at some point in the future. If it will always take YOU working at the thing to keep it going, and there's no way to back you time out - you have a job, you are the boss and the employee. You have income, but no life.4) Realize Risk is all. Not money as much as time and emotional commitment. You are going to have throw everything you have got behind the project. And when it fails (it might) be prepared to throw everything you've got into the next, and the next, until you make it work (it will)Risk as in attitude, not as in throwing your family's saving at something with no safety net. Not risk as in craziness without thought. Risk as in; no-one else believes in it, no one else sees it, no-one else is prepared to work this hard, no one else can see how it will possibly work -What do they know?5) take advice only from those who have what you want. Again I repeat take advice only from those who have what you want. It doesn't matter if its your parents, your best friend, your rich neighbor, if they do not have what you want - in this case, creating an income stream that is self sufficient unto itself, and that can make them millionaires. They have no say.After all these days Frank Kern can make 1 million or so in an hour - and GM and top wall street financial institutions are bankrupt.If you are not American, then absorb their driving spirit enough to make your life financially free. Believe in becoming accountable for your own future. Absorb the risk.When people are financially free they can help others. You have time and money. Its good to send money to Haiti or Chile, its better to go down there and help with your own hands, put the 'aid' directly into the right hands.Its good to care about your kids. Its better to have a life where you can be with them when they need you because you have created time in your life.The entrepreneur is a French word - but its America's gift to the world.Take the gift.