When we hear the word entrepreneur, many of us think of Silicon Valley stars like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and others who have created sprawling, successful companies whose products and services seep into our everyday lives. These entrepreneurs may be household names, but they are more the exception than the rule. Everyday entrepreneurs—the ordinary people launching and leading small businesses—form the backbone of the US economy. According to the US Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses account for more than 99.9 percent of all American companies, employing more than sixty million people. A typical entrepreneur, defined by Merriam‑Webster as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise,” is more like a microschool founder than a Microsoft founder.
Opinion
Opinion
Entrepreneurs Transform Entire Industries, Including Education
Disruptive innovation in K-12 education.
The cover of Kerry McDonald’s new book, “Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling.” Yorel Ktech/FEE
The following is an adapted excerpt from FEE senior fellow Kerry McDonald’s new book, “Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling,” which is available now wherever books are sold. It is reprinted here with permission from the publisher.
Kerry McDonald
Author
Kerry McDonald is a senior education fellow at FEE and host of the weekly LiberatED podcast. She is also the author of “Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom” (2019) and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. She lives in Cambridge, Mass., with her husband and four children.
Author’s Selected Articles
