State Of Entrepreneurship

Mr. Chuck Johnson,

Jibberish it is not but rather it is intelligence and intelligence

form's being. Being is what construct's reality and consequently -

the reality that you face is proportionately is intermixed with ---

your consciousness.

We need tax free saving accounts like the ownership society bush was tring to sell. They have already in Canada, UK, Australia, and Argentina. Argentina started the trend after their economy crash just like ours. We should monitor their progress since they had a head start. This will empower us with the capital to start and grow a business with no credit.

It would be a great idea if the powers that be wake up and see that we can put America Back To Work. We can create jobs. We have a simple solution. Let the entrepreneurs do what they do best. Circulate the flow of money, and get the economy flowing again. We have the programs ready to go, How much longer do we have to wait to get the financial support that we need?

As a matter of primacy with the U.S. Economy, the people must acknowledge a paradigm shift as the world comes to evolve we the people need to revolve. The people also need to disseminate conscious being and scientific propensity, all in all this propensity mandates' the potential of humanity.
Must take the less and make it more, must transcend the subconscious to realize the potential and notice that ALL is most definitely not the physical.

It's very clear that our economy has reached a point where it cannot sustain itself without the support of venture capital and entrepreneurs to create new industry and innovation. The Build a Stronger American foundation however has overlooked some key elements to meeting this entrepreneurship goal. The focus should really be legislative - the ban on banks supplying venture capital needs to be removed. Here is an outline for an actionable approach to fixing our economy!

-Exempt newly issued stock from the ban on banks buying stock for their own account

-Authorize the Federal Reserve System to set up appropriate systems to enable commercial banks to provide venture capital without endangering bank solvency.

-Encourage liquidation of stock held by banks to comply with Sherman Anti-Trust act

-Find and implement appropriate ways to make it profitable and feasible for investment bankers to raise money for early stage companies. This could be modeled after the existing institutional venture capital industry.

-Find a way to allow investment bankers to raise money in stages like venture capitalists do.

-Find and implement several ways for investors of all incomes to invest in venture capital.

-Enable venture capital mutual funds.

-Create tax incentives for investments in venture capital funds and newly issued stock.

-Create greater tax incentives for early stage investments.

-Create ongoing tax incentives for investment in algae farming businesses and other businesses that will remove pollution from waterways and ecosystems.

-Create tax incentives for investing biodiesel.

-Create tax incentives for investment of neodymium mining. Neodymium is required for hybrid automobiles.

Please forgive me for being blunt but I have to say that this page does not seem to be attempting to solve anything! Just a bunch of individuals in discussions that aren't going anywhere! Just empty words. In order for a forum to be useful, it needs direction and goals. I am attempting to establish a MASTERMIND GROUP, as described in the classic book THINK AND GROW RICH, by Napoleon Hill.

Do you know that US eliminate the use of paint containing lead since 1978? Well, but China is using paint containing lead right now and exporting goods(Toys, Furniture, Tools, Appliances, etc) to US, Why? Because China don't have rules.

Do you know that in the California State, for example, an Entrepreneur to starting a business want to get 19 Federal,State and City Permits, meanwhile in China not need nothing? US want to go to World Trade Organization with an intelligent proposal to fit equal rules to Trade with China.

We want to avoid the flood of goods of China. Some years ago I worked in an The Home Depot Store and I verified that 90 of each 100 items in stock for sale has been imported from China....How the small,medium of big American Companies can survive in this scenario?

Entrepreneurship has been evidenced as the driver of the US economic growth from the start of the industrial revolution. It is hinged on our unique and sometimes complicated education system that supports expression of ideas that lead to innovation.

The failure of our society to recognize the decline in scientific minded graduates coupled with a growing trend in Washington to be bugged down by minutia instead of rationalizing and compromising to come up with policies to capitalize on the effects of globalization, we are adrift as a nation.

We as Americans are being handcuffed by policy more and more as the rest of the world frees up regulations to foster innovation. For the first time, the US is looking a some level of brain drain as more and more innovators leave for more fertile grounds.

The test will be whether we allow a few financial and a few industrial organizations to control our government and economy. We still have a chance to innovate ourselves to the top of the world but only time will tell. The key areas where we could excel are environmental, energy and aerospace.

However, as a very small business that depends on a vibrant economy, I am stuck with no source of financing other than my own and now friend in government, so i will keep plugging and hope for the best. Things have sure changed since the 1990's.

To avoid from roots the current economic crisis The White House and The Congress must be understand that the first priority is to define an Competitivity Index to be applied to China imports.The small, medium o big America Corporation can not to compete with Slave salaries in an economic, politic and social totalitary sysstem like China.

The strange things about this site is that individuals are talking about problems and not a word is mentioned about solutions! Another problem is that the individuals do not seem to care about solutions, if they did would leave an email address or a phone number so they could some possible solutions to their problems.

No success or failure is necessary a final The true stars are within, awaiting discovery.

Everyday is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.

My Dear Luke Craig,
May I take issue with your comment:

Philosophy needs to be taught to the young for it will establish a matrix of propensity/possibility/potential. The economy of the United States of America must have such a matrix to in-turn proportionately re-align "The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave". True it be that evolution does play a role (miniscule) although all in all the most powerful sense of reality restith in thy consciousness. First of All I have no idea of what you mean - Please compare it with such simplicity as my statement below. People need jobs! Not some gibberish that no one can understand; I think we would be best by taking things a small bit at a time...."a thousand mile trip begins with one step in the right direction" so goes a Chinese proverb. Brian Tracy also mentioned this in one of his lectures.

Our economy has reached the point where it cannot sustain itself without the support of venture capital and entrepreneurs to create new industry. Unfortunately however, the banking industry is not legally allowed to supply venture capital to create the necessary innovation. Rather than dumping the vast quantities of money managed by the banking industry into mortgages and creating situations such as sub-prime mortgages, that money needs to be funneled into creating new industry, something for which debt funding alone is incapable of. The truth is, without removing this de facto ban on innovation, our economy will continue to deteriorate indefinitely. It is the responsibility of every individual to make sure this does not happen. We need to make sure that innovation is possible. We need to make sure that the American dream is possible and for everyone.

Entrepreneurs need resources, guidance and support. They need practical reality based training showing the truth about starting a business and building it so that it will last. Those who hype how to make millions without really working hard, and those who preach everyone can do it...need to be exposed as the frauds they are.

We have started [a website] as an educational resource and we seek articles, interviews and honesty from successful entrepreneurs to show how the math matters, how the funding is hard to acquire, and to show how much time it really takes to climb the mountain. We have to stop the almost fifty percent of people who start companies that fail causing hardship for owners and investors.

Herman

Philosophy needs to be taught to the young for it will establish a matrix of propensity/possibility/potential. The economy of the United States of America must have such a matrix to in-turn proportionately re-align "The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave". True it be that evolution does play a role (miniscule) although all in all the most powerful sense of reality restith in thy consciousness.

Many attributes of the education that is given to the young innately does not become useful. Education should concentrate predominately on the Here And Now as-well as In The Future.

The citizens' of America can and will can and Shall Rock This Nation but before that happen's they/we must become aware of propensity, as-well as consc-iousness. This theory (so to speak) is Quantum Sapience and as proclaimed, it is a meta-oriented theory that is fundamentally structured throughout the Emot-ional, Mental, Physical and Spiritual entities which to pertain to reality.

I am an entrepreneur. Unlike most of the US population, I was not caught off-guard when the recession came -because I am also a student of Austrian economics & subscribe to the writings of Dr. Ron Paul & Mr. Peter Schiff. So, despite having my own personal financial crisis involving an unscrupulous business associate in 2007 (who is now in jail); -I managed to leverage over +3000% return from my humble savings -that I diverted into a specific investment when I saw the writing on the economic wall. I am all about risk-taking & delayed gratification. I also know from years of personal study that government is generally the problem --a severe one. Not only do government policies get in the way due to the backdoor agendas built into them, --but the rhetoric of government taints the minds of the public & generally blinds people to alternative ways of thinking about issues -even discouraging such talk. Earth shaking ideas always change society & it's the result of the paradigm-shift that spawns new innovations. But what happens in a society resistant to change (so resistant that government policy has indirectly locked in place the status-quo)? Just reading over the posts here -it's obvious to me that many of the contributors have been mesmerized by government-speak; --But I can tell you (law being a hobby of mine) -that much of what I read about taxes, regulations & things like patents are spoken from ignorance of the actual law about such matters and that DC does not have nearly the level of control that many people imagine it does. It's like watching a dog -held captive without a boundary by a collar that emits a sound when the dog gets near the boundary-line. And the irony is that all the other dogs bark frantic warnings when they hear rumor of the collar's sound --providing merely the peer pressure of fear to keep the dog inside an intangible fence. Let me cue you in on a secret: +90% of the time -the collar only makes a noise & can do nothing else. And having said that +90% of those reading won't believe it. And when those +90% of people -held in a mental prison set down by a matrix of misleading legal-language are also those who are "investors", -they will choose not to invest because some barking dog is freaking out about a boundary line that in reality -is an illusion (does not exist). There is an old saying -that "The truth will set you free."; --BUT ONLY the truth you KNOW. I just wanted to preface with that commentary. My invention (that I am seeking a QUALITY industry partner to venture jointly with) -reduces the energy wasted by the conventional clothes dryer -some 50-80%. The savings figures are quite impressive. The installation (via contractor) is very affordable. And the payback to the home owner is roughly 2-4 years based on use. My background in energy-management & control systems dates back to 1986 when I was doing computer-based, state-of-the-art system design. Fundamentals never change. My ideal partner would be an existing business with a solid personnel connection to the electricity-generation industry (which, -I'm told, -has the most to gain from innovations that can reduce the demand on the grid by GIGAwatt hours). - Good day.

@Thompson New York...very interesting remarks. You must be unfamiliar with Socrates who made plain that the state is the only way private property can exist. It alone can employ police forces to protect private property, and run courts to mediate harm, and taxes have to be paid to maintain that protection. Under your scenario, the only people who will keep their property are the ones who can hire their own private police forces. Are you one of those?

So was Callicles, who was instrumental in getting Socrates put to death. He didn't like the idea that this "state" would curtail his personal liberties to be a thug against those physically weaker than him. Although quite possibly not mentally weaker!

Good luck in Thompson's America! Not good for entrepreneurs who want to devote their lives to creating livelihood and chances of wealth for themselves.
That was also part of Socrates' argument. You'll never get people to do their most productive work when they can be robbed blind anytime by a Thug force!

And there are plenty of others who have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated with this idea over the last decades since Goldwater. Goldwater's boys definitely have the private security on their ranches. And jets. And helicopters.

Too bad it won't hold up very long against the tides of history! And very bad for getting people to be self-determinist and creative!

The Jobs Plan We'd Get If Leading Innovation Scholars And Growth Economists Weren't Being Volckerized (i.e., Ignored As Volcker Was Until Recently) would leverage America's advantages to make America the Silicon Valley of the global market for customized education (CE).

Understanding why we'd get this plan starts with knowing that popular online markets for CE can be expected to catalyze the creation of many jobs.

There are two dominant themes in the majority of the comments here; they are (1) the stifling of innovation to meet the many challenges facing us today due to governmental bureaucratic obstacles in place for the benefit of large business to discourage competition from small business and (2) the crippling costs of doing business for entrepreneurial start-ups. At the same time, it is publicly acknowledged by Congress and the President that small business is being looked to as the golden goose that can lay the golden egg of our economic recovery. It follows than that the entrepreneurs should unite to lobby (by their shear number; not money) the Congress and President to do what they need to do to create the environment that will encourage, or at least allow without these unreasonable obstacles, entrepreneurs to accomplish our recovery as they are best suited to do. I know there are many associations and alliances you may already belong to. If each of you would contact any of the organizations you belong to and direct their leaders to join together in order to unify your voices, it would be a lot easier and less time consuming than to each write your congressional delegations - which may or may not get read - but a consortium of business peoples' association very publicly demanding that Congress address and meaningfully correct these important defects could not be ignored. Since the large businesses and industry organizations write their own legislation for Congress to submit as bills, it would be good to submit what you require with specificity as well. If you leave it to them, they won't give you what you want, if they ever would get around to it. A survey of members' priorities would be followed by a vote to sort out the highest priority amongst them and would be the way to find a starting point. Determine by democratic process the top three priorities. Once those are accomplished, take up the next important until the list is worked through.

The best thing for entrepreneurs will be the collapse of the Big Monopolistic Coercion Machine: the state. The best thing we can do to hasten its overdue demise is to simply ignore it. Business owners, start producing and trading off the books and off the Record. Individuals and employees, offer to work and make more purchases OTR! The less the state consumes in its insane bureaucracy, the more we're left with - and the more in turn we can produce next month. The cure for this recession is not before our eyes but behind them.

We are the way out not the government, and change is the only thing that's constant.

Many current industries and government departments alike, need to simply die and fade away, and thereby give light to the kind of innovation and problem solving that makes America Great.

The most pressing thing that I feel that entrepreneurs need first is radically reduced bureaucracy overall, then encouraged, open, and willing connections to like minded people who can serve as both experienced partners ("been there, done that") and to those financially able to help, as they recognize and actually invest, time, experience, and money into trending opportunities and potential future profits, without looking like the typical VC extortion types of lending that are prevalent currently.

Access to innovative micro sized business capital, possibly including government guarantees for that capital would be good, and makes good sense, if the government really wants business expansion from it's purest point of origin.

And lastly we need a simple and flat and "fair tax" structure so that when someone does figure out a way to earn a dollar by filling a need and serving others, they actually earn "a dollar" without fear of how much of that dollar the government will take, or contemplating how that dollar will be treated by a complicated, bloated and confusing tax code that serves few and stresses many.

Back to basics, and the free flow of ideas and capital without all the social engineering "we want this to happen" kind of strings.

I have been running a small business for over 20 years, and my biggest challenges have been providing decent pay and providing health care coverage for my employees. Last year (2009) our health insurance costs went up 50% (yes, FIFTY percent) per person because one of our employees has had heart problems. As a very small business (less then 10 employees), my choice was to pay this outrageous price (which I couldn't afford), drop health care coverage (which would mean the person having heart problems would basically be sent to the poor house), or compromise and pay half the costs and have my employees pay the other half. We went with option three. But, really? how horrible is it to put a small business in this position? We desperately need health care reform.

The United State's of America is a nation that with-hold's a touch of everyth- ing. It is one of the goal's of Diverse Design to establish a nation of one through interactive and inter-dimensional philosophy. This philosophy is know- ledge intermixed with sentience which in-turn becomes a form of sapience or the use of that extra sense. A way to allow others' to become aware of this sixth sense is through digital imagery. In the end this shall be considered a sense of education, media, philanthropy, or sentience through sapience. America shall prevail and dominate by transcending the immaterial phenomina.

What I do not understand is ...while we promote building America the following is a handicap

America doing a lot of relief work in Haiti, labor intensive products may have to be imported from elsewhere at the moment. Other items could be manufactured in the US. Donors money getting wasted on freight often higher than the value of goods!.

The other thing I see is : payment up front is expected by US vendor they have never heard of such a thing called "Letter of credit" widely used in Europe. The far eastern suppliers having to trust the US vendor to part with payment upfront on purchases in good faith where as vise versa is not entertained by the US vendor to work along together to complement each other on large tenders.
Misconception about LC's (Letter of credit) driving away business opportunities back to the far east to incur freight charges and delay instead the manufacturers of US and foreign could work as partners
to complement high value tenders.
Another thing that comes to mind retailers should be encouraged to have a section for "Made in America" there are people who will pay extra to trigger local production, they need to go miles & miles searching for local products & supplies.

I have a good 5 or 6 marketable ideas for products but no way to produce them and no intention of risking capital without an enforceable patent. I'm not risking capital on the patent either because it's a very expensive process.

A government program of profit-sharing that defrays the cost of acquiring a patent might be a terrific spur to job growth.

If patents cost 300 dollars instead of 10,000 in legal costs, you'd end up with an avalanche of ideas, the proceeds of which would pay the extra costs the government would be paying. A limit of these discounted patents could be imposed so each citizen could attempt to patent an idea once every three years. (or other time interval)

Until it becomes affordable, my 5 ideas stay on the shelf in my mind, employing NOBODY. The risks are too high, the rewards, too uncertain.

A major contributor to America's debt is our consumption of fossil based fuels. If we were able to not only curtail the amounts used each year but start mass producing electric cars that are fueled by renewable energy such as wind, geothermal, solar etc.. we would not only be cleaning up our environment in the U.S but reducing our dependence on the import of oil as well. If America is able to emulate what China, of all places, is starting to do with their investing in Green energy, then our citizens would have more jobs producing the power, building the vehicles and batteries, and probably lessening our health costs at the same time. The new electric Tesla vehicle goes from 0 to 60 MPH in 4 seconds. That is similar to a Corvette so loss of power should not be an issue. I am pursuing the mining of rare earth metals that are required for Green Energy. Small part in a big play.

Entrepreneurs who run small businesses need help in two areas:

1) The punch of payroll taxes. For every full-time employee, we pay in payroll taxes what I could pay a new employee in a part-time training level position. A payroll tax holiday would be a helpful and concrete step state and federal governments could take to assist small businesses in this economic crunch period. Not permanent, but just a brief payroll tax holiday to give the small business owners some breathing room.

2) Hidden credit card fees. Rewards cards and corporate cards hurt small business. For regular transactions, we pay 1.64% of the transaction in fees. But when a customer uses a rewards card, like a miles card, or a corporate card, we pay an outrageous 3.54%. It may not seem like much, but an extra $100-$300 a month in credit card fees matters to a small business. Why do we pay for customers free airline miles? This is an area the federal government has not addressed in the credit reform work.

As Mary Naylor said in the report, “Additional dollars that have to go out the door are crucial for a small business.” These are just two of the specific areas where I see dollars going out our door.

We argue in favour of an experimental laboratory approach as a way of accelerating the creation, incubation and testing of new venture ideas by establishing a micro-ecosystem of aspiring entrepreneurs and others in a business labs environment. The goal is to create a mini idea supercollider where a microscopic “Medici Effect” can be achieved where aspiring entrepreneurs with different ideas, experience and disciplines meet in a spirit of open innovation with the sum of the whole much greater than the sum of each of the individual parts. The creation of an ecosystem for idea creation and rapid testing using business simulation tools can accelerate the creation, mobilization and diffusion stages of the knowledge life cycle in a knowledge driven entrepreneurship venture while de-risking potential ventures before significant capital is applied.
Martin Curley and Piero Formica

Mr. Schramm focused his comments on the individual as the entrepreneurs. Secretary Locke focused on institutions as a source. But likely the "Ford" entrepreneur will not come from an institution. Secretary Locke didn't mention how we are to spur on these entrepreneurs, Mr. Schramm did, and he's on the money. As entrepreneurs we need to be able to show spectacular returns to interest risk takers. Any way the spreadsheet can be enhanced with a spectacular tax break to place more of the income to the bottom line, the more likely is a risky idea to be funded. But as long as people like Mr. Schramm and Secretary Locke work together, we get the multiplier effect of that team, and it takes a team to execute.

As an mechanical and chemical engineer for over 40 years and an inventor nearly all that time, I have never seen a product that can't be improved, even my own (ahem), some very significantly with only a simple change. Considering we are importing some $400 in oil a year (70% of use), obviously there is unlimited opportunities in energy. That's where I'm focused because that will help America get back on its feet in a big way. We have to pay our bills somehow, and it's going to take a lot of "Fords" to do it, and energy can create them.

Communicating the big idea is a problem, however. The web sites that cater to inventions for nominal consumer products are not going to help. A Web site is needed that just caters to several $billion sales ideas because there is no better way for them to get attention if these ideas are by individual entrepreneurs. Again, as Mr. Schramm says, it is individual entrepreneur that will be starting the businesses that matter to job growth. The reason is corporations just fear for their existing order books, entrepreneurs create the order books with the potential for hyper growth.

As a person who works with start-ups everyday though a thriving business incubation program, I am really pleased to see this focus on the most important part of economic recovery – entrepreneurship. Great data in this survey, but two more years of recession..ouch.

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Great to see finally people talking about entrepreneurship with a fine toothed comb. Too much simplistic ideological focus on tax rates, and monetary policy and the needs of the mere owners of money as the only important factors of production have crippled our economy and economic prospects for some time.

I am glad to hear someone at least finally talking about the human inputs that alone make possible turning ordinary money, favorable tax rates and interest rates into anything like a new business.

We've also got to get the unfair political advantages bought by entrenched going concerns who block capital formation around innovation that threatens their out of date business models too! This is major in the energy sector now, where unfair advantages distort IRR calculations for alternative energy, biggest one being the military subsidy taxpayers pay to oil and extractors all over the world to ensure their property rights in foreign hostile, but nevertheless cheap, labor countries, as well as transportation through pirate zones.

None of those real costs turn up in any pump price. Leaving them out therefore distorts IRR calc for kilowatt hour comparisons for new energies. These subsidies and low effective corporate income tax rates also explain the super normal economic rents enjoyed by what is basically a monopoly industry of oligopolies, oligarchs, and their attendant military servants, with no real competition in sight (Well done guys? You won this one. But, we're waking up and we're mad!).

That little problem never gets mentioned in these speeches in the Beltway. Surprise surprise. Don't tell me these people don't know the unintended or maybe fully intended consequences of the whole-system that feeds them.

Those consequences totally disadvantage new entrants in every sector of our economy that has now been overly concentrated into too few corporate shrinking brains' hands. IFIF.org, Businessweek, and Newsweek have all within the last year run articles about 10 yrs of market failure for capital to form around new innovations already funded on campuses by Federal basic R&D $$$ for decades.

While toothless anti-trust appointees by last President (and this President hasn't done anything to fix it either)have made a few people rich, they have stifled innovation to create new opportunity for everybody else. These rankings show that in painful detail.

I don't agree about Professors becoming entrepreneurs. They don't know how to run a business, and I've seen too many at important schools I won't mention piss away valuable money, time, and patents when keys were handed over to them. They don't know how to make the right hires, don't have the industry contacts they need to make deals, and little comes of it! The big licensing money for Federal R&D recipient universities has always come from Detroit and the military sector. Not from Professor run start-ups.

Let them and their students create patents, and let real business people build diverse teams that can convert ideas on paper (even patent paper) into products and sell them to paying customers. I agree that hard sciences can create patents, but even by choosing science, they self select the personal skills and attributes they will have for life, which are not the ones needed to build run and market a complete enterprise.

They are rarely sales people, rarely people people and most of their work is never validated by insight or market research about sellable products in the first place. For all but special high tech products bought by fellow geeks on the cool factor, start-up technologies have to go through a time consuming and costly iterative process lead by people with sales and marketing skills more than science. These people skills, listening skills, workplace knowledge, and conceptual skills are what is needed to figure out what exactly is the sellable product those patents can become, and how it is going to be sold into already entrenched markets. Read Amar Bhide "Venturesome Economy" about the many many many skillsets it takes up and down any enterprise to convert science into business. That conversion is the hard part, where there is a shortage of skills with the right chemistry, especially as our high schools and universities seem to be failing to create truly generative creative minds these days, as definitely was the case in the past. That is the athletic part. The elastic brain part. And that is the part where everybody screws up!

This is work most VCs don't even know how to oversee correctly, since the profile of VCs has changed significantly over the last 15 years to be less experienced operators, to more MBAs with just finance training.

And certainly BODs of established companies prove themselves to be disincentivized by Wall Street quarterly earnings seasons for getting involved in any of this kind of work. Read Clayton Christensen about how time and time again experienced executives at expensive companies ignore the signs and never get on the band wagon for new innovations until the shareholders money has whittled down to nothing! And worse for the wage earners involved!

There is so much to learn to make into more common knowledge, and so many myths to bust. But those myths are well protected by incumbents of both industrial and money nature who try desperately to keep newcomers out of the secrets!

Since 2000 we have passed a number of laws and regulations that are killing innovation in the US. The incredible innovation of the 90s was based on technology start-up companies built on intellectual capital, financial capital, and human capital. All three of the pillars have been under attack since 2000. Our patent laws have been weakened reducing the value of intellectual capital. Sarbanes Oxley has made it impossible to go public reducing financial capital for start-ups and the FASB rules on stock options have made it harder to attract human capital to start-ups.

As the job creators, entrepreneurs really are the answer to digging us out of this difficult economic mess. Innovation is critical, but so are tax cuts for small businesses. If entrepreneurs aren't able to create more jobs, we're going to have to cut them, which will put our country in an even more compromising state. Locke's support is great but the government needs to get serious about making changes that will tangibly help America's small businesses.

Being a small snack food manufacturing company based in this country, I find that there is no support for manufacturing here. Recommendations are for us to outsource it to other countries. Are there any programs to support manufacturing businesses and are there any financing options other than the regular SBA, and conventional loans?

Innovation plays such a critical role in entrepreneurship. Secretary Locke's comments regarding more investment in innovation and entrepreneurship are a step in the right direction.