Over a century ago, the famous words “Workers of the world, unite!” called for a revolution. Today, we need to change that statement to “Entrepreneurs of the world, unite!”

More and more every day, government is overstepping its boundaries and threatening to take over – or maybe take down – our capitalist system. Meanwhile, the news media, movies, and television shows tend to vilify business leaders as corrupt and evil.

It is time to remind the world about how essential, creative, and vital we are…

We create the wealth that generates employment, revenues, and corporate profits that fund government entitlements. Without us, government – and all those who rely on government – comes to a halt.

When others are mired in doubt and negativity, we see possibilities.

When others can’t get things done, we find a way. Even when resources are scarce, we use our street smarts and creativity to make things happen anyway.

While others waste time sitting in front of the television set or complaining about how they wish things were, we spend almost every waking hour focusing on how to make things the way we want them to be…including how to meet payroll and grow our business.

We live by results. If we don’t get results, we die. When others want to point fingers and blame, we have no choice but to take 100% responsibility for what happens in our business and in our life. If we fail, we pick ourselves up, learn from our mistakes, and rebuild….and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We are responsible even when others are not, or refuse to be. “The buck stops here” rarely is true in government, and has become a myth for the “too big to fail” corporate behemoths, but is always true for the owners of small to mid-size businesses. Indeed, while huge, politically-connected corporations can’t even go out of business effectively, we do not have the luxury of being ineffective even a little bit. Any mistake we make is punished, often fatally. We accept this burden, and we thrive under it.

While big government can mortgage our futures by printing money, mock the concept of a balanced budget, and use ridiculous accounting schemes, we do not because we cannot. We live in a world of accuracy, precision, and reality – where results must be real and value must be compelling for us to survive.

Our efforts create jobs, benefits (when productivity allows), and cause money to flow freely for all. We generate the wealth that pays for our schools, infrastructure, military, social security, healthcare, and welfare. Government cannot exist without us.

We are the ultimate creative economic force in any economy, anywhere. Unlike government, we cannot force “the people” to pay us. We must offer products and services that people actually value….enough to part with their hard-earned money.

Government leaders may ignore us or pass laws that hurt us, but without us they cannot exist for long. They can only print money for so long before the economy will collapse. Meanwhile, they can never come close to controlling our creativity or appetite for risk, and they lack the skills to mimic our productivity and resourcefulness.

We may not be heroic in the same way as the soldiers who risk their lives to protect our freedom every day. However, we are heroes in that we make a vibrant economy possible, and therefore we make good governance and a strong nation possible. 

Our weakness is that we are fragmented and way too busy. It seems that government is taking advantage of these weaknesses. When we decide to exercise our power, watch out. Government cannot run without our contributions. Period.

For now, let us celebrate our contributions, our willingness to take risks, and the wonderful results of our sweat and creativity.

And let us unite together, so that if government goes too far, we are ready to exercise our incredible power!