DEIXAR DE DAR GRAXA PARA MUDAR DE VIDA: Não empreendam tanto no empreendedorismo

Por falar em destruição criativa, por cá a propósito e despropósito de empreendedorismo enche-se a boca de luminárias, escrevem-se teses, artigos, dedicam-se páginas de jornais (o Expresso, por exemplo, poderia chamar-se «Jornal do Empreendedorismo»), fazem-se seminários, conferências, eventos, e até, imagine-se, existe uma secretaria de estado. E, contudo, a acreditar em Daniel Isenberg que andou os últimos 30 anos a tratar do assunto, como empreendedor, investidor em capital de risco e académico, e estudando casos de empreendedorismo em todo o mundo, tudo isso é bem capaz de ser inútil. Vejamos o que aconselha Isenberg no seu livro «Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid» segundo o resumo da Economist:

«Mr Isenberg has two important bits of advice for policymakers who genuinely want to foster entrepreneurship. First, they should remove barriers to entry, and growth, for all sorts of business, rather than seeking to build particular types of clusters. Second, they should recognise the importance of the profit motive. There has been much fancy talk of “social entrepreneurship”—harnessing enterprise to do good deeds—but in truth the main motivator for entrepreneurs is the chance of making big money. This is what drives people to take huge risks and endure years of hardship. And this is what encourages investors to take a punt on business ideas that, at first sight, look half-crazy.

Politicians and bureaucrats do not just confuse entrepreneurship with things they like—technology, small business—they also fail to recognise that it entails things that set their teeth on edge. Entrepreneurs thrive on inequality: the fabulous wealth they generate in America makes the country more unequal. They also thrive on disruption, which creates losers as well as winners. Joseph Schumpeter once argued that economic progress takes place in “cracks” and “leaps” rather than “infinitesimal small steps” because it is driven by rule-breaking entrepreneurs. It might be nice to think that we could have growth and job-creation without a good deal of Schumpeterian cracking. But, alas, some thoughts really are worthless, impossible and stupid.»