American Entrepreneurs

How does running a business differ around the world? 

This was a question asked in What drives US entrepreneurship?  It was interesting finding out the perspective of three US business people interviewed by BBC News exploring what drives American entrepreneurship.

Tom Ryan (founder of restaurant chain Smashburger) was one of the three interviewed and found it hilarious how he was described.  He’s described as you’re typical, easy going American entrepreneur and the last part is he wants to take over the world. And who doesn’t? When you own your business and are proud of it you feel like introducing your special product to the unknowing masses.

The other interviewee was a Californian named Eric Ries from Silicon Valley. Ries said that some of his technological start-ups have been both failures and successes. With his past history, Eric Ries feels that the US willing to support and tolerate business failures compared to Europe or other parts of the world. He goes on saying that in Europe when you fail in business it’s very difficult to borrow money again for other business ventures.

I see both benefits and risks with that concept. You could end up making money the second time around or just become increasingly more in debt. But as they say in American business the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.

The third US entrepreneur was Julie Meyer and she works as well as lives in London. She agreed that Americans are willing to take more of a chance on their business. She felt that is it’s a “cultural thing.” Meyer felt that the UK had wonderful entrepreneurs, but financing is sometimes not available to them.

A lot of the issues that the three mainly focused on were that fact that in the US you had more of an opportunity to getting the fund to work for yourself. If it wasn’t for our risk taking culture companies like Google or Facebook might not have occurred. These start-ups were started in a garage/dorm room. They also stressed how you don’t have to be born with the abilities to be an entrepreneur they can easily be acquired.

Micro-financing in other countries

Other countries could easily achieve this if their government provided its’ people with more support. I fully believe this is true. For example, I have read cases where in India women were given small loans to start up their business and not only were they able to pay it off, but turned it into a profit. India even has a school that teaches women how to borrow money, network, and they provide resources. Micro-financing could successfully impact women groups in India and take them out of poverty.



Studies found that women in Kenya were helped with practical needs in the short-term and long-term promoting strategic change. Micro-finance may actually help women gain respect and achieve more socially defined roles.