Entrepreneurs have created the world we live in.  In fact, we have the good old USA because of entrepreneurs like Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci from whom America gets its name.  Entrepreneurs have been around since the beginning of mankind.  From a caveman designing a hunting and gathering system to the founders of Google, entrepreneurs have been shaping our lifestyles, innovating our technologies, and championing our freedoms.  Many of our more famous people in history have been entrepreneurs.

 Benjamin Franklin, the entrepreneur and statesman, was responsible for many innovations that still impact our lives and our freedom today.  Thomas Edison lit up our world.  Alexander Graham Bell gave us the telephone, which would later give support to the infrastructure of the internet.  Henry Ford, the reason I have my Ford F-150 pickup.  Andrew Carnegie, Mary Kay, Hewlett Packard, Doris Christopher, Steve Jobs, Bette Nesmith Graham, Bill Gates, David Filo, Jerry Yang, Larry Page, Sergey Brin.  All these people have had a monumental impact in our lives.

To make an entire list of all the entrepreneurs who have made a difference in this world (and I believe all of them do in some way) would take too many lifetimes.  Everything we have and everything we see came from the innovative mind of an entrepreneur.  Sure it may be some scientist or engineer (both can be entrepreneurs) who invented it but it takes an entrepreneur to bring it to the world.

Throughout our history entrepreneurs have led the way.  Who will lead our future?  Our entrepreneurs of course!  Our next generation of entrepreneurs will take a crucial role in the future of this wonderful planet. In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman talks about the flattening of the world and the leveling of the playing field in regards to the world economy.  I believe that the next generation will be competing for jobs globally and not just here at home.  In fact, it has already started.

 In the next generation our children will have a tougher fight in the job market.  This will only increase the necessity for greater numbers of entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs who will be innovating and designing the next billion dollar companies and quite possibly the first trillion dollar company.  Our children and the next generation will need these companies and the jobs they provide.

This lens was developed to present an awareness of the importance of the precious entrepreneurial spirit.  It is this spirit, I believe, that will find the solution to global warming, the next alternative energy source, the education system to eradicate poverty and give people hope, and continue to create a world we can be proud to call our home.