Economics of Entrepreneurship

This past weekend, I attended an Economics of Entrepreneurship conference at Chapman University presented by the Foundation for Economic Education. Throughout the few days we were there, we attended many lectures and participated in different activities that helped us students understand the principles and virtues of economics and how these principles were applied entrepreneurship. We learned about the true value of having passion and desire and how this could lead us to being successful no matter what we wanted to do.

The best thing I learned ended up being something that required a bit of self inflection. We were talking about subjective value, something that states that value isn’t universal and that all people value things differently. While one person may think something is useless, someone else may value it to a much larger extent We all have reserved preferences and sacrifices we have towards things we want. In an entrepreneurial sense, we had to realize that to start a good business, we had to do it with the mindset of serving others. In the real world, a purchase is a voluntary exchange, whether it be money or an exchange of other goods. When someone buys a good or service, they are always turning down another offer or another choice. Always be the best you can be, at what you do.

As I thought about ideas on what people wanted, I heard a quote that made me rethink it all. It told us “find something you’re good at, and make money from it.” We were told to chase a passion that we had, something you think you can do better than anyone else and go make money from it. It didn’t have to be something that fit people's every need, but the thing we did we had to be the best at. Regardless of what it was, we need to chase those things we are best at so that we can change that industry. As Barack Obama once said, “We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.” Finding your passion and being excellent, and turning that into your source of income is a lesson we must adhere to so that we fill our industries with those who are passionate and will create change and a better world.

The moral of all this can be put simply. Be a game changer and go change the game. Don’t let the rules define you, instead you go out and define the rules. Be the person that changes the game and let someone invest into you as much as you’d want to invest into yourself. When one does something they are good at, it becomes a way to follow passions and create an economy where we are led by the most passionate set of leaders in each group. All value is subjective, so we should do the work we feel is most valuable and yearn to be the best.