Own Your Individual Economy: Get Ready

We all have far more individual economic power than we realize in today’s economy. Entrepreneurs of past generations worked tirelessly to acquire the skills and resources necessary to give them a competitive advantage or allow them to start a business. Today’s entrepreneurs are experiencing a new phenomenon – we can enter the market without 100% of the knowledge, skills or resources required because we know we’ll be able to acquire what we need, when we need it. We call that process augmentation and it’s possible (and becoming even easier!) thanks to emerging technology.

The Center for Individualism has curated a library of various tools and resources, designed to help you augment your individual capacity and reach your full entrepreneurial potential.

Research is the first step in becoming a sound entrepreneur. We’ve collected the most relevant research papers from top economists, technologists and professors around the world to help you on your journey.

Progress and Entrepreneurship

Download Now – Research Paper by Randall G. Holcombe

Economists have been studying the factors that improve people’s material well-being at least as far back as Adam Smith (1776), but the phenomenon of economic progress—or as it is often more narrowly studied, growth—barely predates Smith.1 Prior to about 1750, economic progress was so slow that people would have to be very observant to see any progress during their lifetimes. Everywhere in the world, the standard of living and the quality of life was much the same in 1750 as it was in 1650, and it was much the same in 1650 as it was in 1550. Indeed, it was much the same in 1550 as it was in 550.2 Since then, economic progress has manifested itself partly in income growth, but even more in new methods of production and in new types of output. This article examines the indispensable role that entrepreneurship has had in the production of economic progress. The link between entrepreneurship and progress may seem obvious, yet the connection between the two in economic analysis is tenuous, partly because mainstream economics does not do a very good job of representing entrepreneurship or progress.

Belief-Action-Results Framework For Entrepreneurs

Download Now – Research Paper by Nicolai J. Foss & Peter G. Klein

Debate in management research on the status of the opportunity construct is now more than a decade old. We argue that the debate has led to little additional insight in entrepreneurship and we develop the case for abandoning the construct altogether. Uncertainty is central to entrepreneurship and innovation yet absent from opportunitybased approaches. We offer instead a “judgment-based view” of entrepreneurship which revolves around the nexus of resource heterogeneity and uncertainty and is operationalized in the “Beliefs-Actions-Results” (BAR) framework.

Entrepreneurs As Theorists

Download Now – Research Paper by Teppo Felin & Todd R. Zenger 

This paper outlines the theory-based view of strategy and markets. The authors argue that novel or “great” strategies come from theories. Entrepreneurs and managers originate theories and hypotheses about which activities they should engage in, which assets they might buy, and how they will create value. A firm’s strategy, then, represents a set of contrarian beliefs and a theory—a unique, firm-specific point of view—about what problems to solve, and how to organize and govern the overall process of value creation. The authors outline the cognitive and perceptual, organizational, and economic foundations of the theory based view of strategy. The authors also discuss the essential attributes needed for a firm-level theory of strategy. Throughout the paper the authors offer informal examples of our argument, by briefly discussing the strategies of companies like Apple, Uber, Disney, Wal-Mart, and Airbnb. The theory-based view of strategy and markets also offers important insights for how firms govern themselves (including ownership, boards, and organization design) and how firms interact with capital markets and external evaluators and stakeholders. The authors conclude with a discussion of the practical and managerial applications of the theory-based view.

Many of history’s successful entrepreneurs, innovators and great leaders have something in common – they are all avid readers. Below is a list of books we’ve curated specifically for entrepreneurs at your stage of the journey.

Individualism: A Reader

Individualism: A Reader

There are several interesting and perspective-stretching compilations of writings on individualism, bringing together texts that are in the public domain but not necessarily widely circulated or widely known. “Individualism: A Reader” is one such compilation, assembled by Libertarianism.org. There’s a useful introduction which compares the anti-individualism of Karl Marx with the ambivalence towards individualism of Alexis de Tocqueville and the wholehearted embrace of individualism by E.L. Godkin, who thought of it as a fundamental character trait of the American.The writers gathered together in the compilation range from Oscar Wilde to St. Augustine. The book is a treasure trove to dip into again and again.

Zero to One

Purchase Now – Book by Peter Theil and Blake Masters

Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Startup of You

Purchase Now – Book by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Here, LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman and author Ben Casnocha show how to accelerate your career in today’s competitive world. The key is to manage your career as if it were a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you. Why? Start-ups – and the entrepreneurs who run them – are nimble. They invest in themselves. They build their professional networks. They take intelligent risks. They make uncertainty and volatility work to their advantage.

To launch your solution, you must assemble resources in a way that’s never been done before. Happily, today, that’s an easier task than ever before. Learn about ACTION and ACTIVATION to launch your business.

The Lean Startup

Purchase Now – Udemy Course by Eric Reis

Lean Startup is a new, field-tested philosophy that provides you with a toolset to minimize failure and increase your chances of success. Learn why hundreds of companies, from financial services companies like Wealthfront to social companies like IMVU to large corporations such as Intuit, are using this revolutionary technique.

How to Start Your Own Business Specialization

Purchase Now – Coursera Course by Michigan State University

This course is the first in a series on starting a business. Though new venture creation is the focus of the specialization, this course is important for everyone.To create a successful business it is not only about what you do (technical execution), it is also about how you think. This course provides learners with insights to re-frame their thinking in order to maximize their chances for success.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Successful Entrepreneur?

Purchase Now – Skillshare Course by Donna Kapitsky

Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?  Take the Entrepreneur Test and find out.  For this project you will take the Entrepreneur Test and rate yourself.  Then I will go into detail via video on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.  This project is a must for anyone wanting to start a new business either online or off line.

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