Chapter 9: The Lure and Illusion of Entrepreneurship

Under Capitalist paradigms, as discussed elsewhere in this writing, the economic pyramid is structured so that for the most part one's labor, time, expertise and other work earns one bare subsistence or less, with few exceptions. Truly significant amounts of currency are generally only attainable through investment of large sums of currency or other wealth in stock exchanges, real estate or other investments. This perpetuates the Pyramid by ensuring that with very few exceptions - just enough exceptions to keep the illusion alive that anybody can "make it," - only those at or near the top of the pyramid have the means to amass enough to secure their life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, respect, high degree of freedom and options.

In such a setting, many in the sub to barely-over-living wage sectors of the Pyramid look to the idea of starting their own business, being their own boss, becoming an entrepreneur in the hopes and belief that it will afford them greater freedom, dignity, and possibility of amassing enough wealth to be able to buy and secure their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Statistics, however, show that 95% of new businesses fail within their first five years. Of those that succeed in becoming self-sustaining, a vanishingly small number actually yield the kind of quantum increase in freedom and quality of life that are envisioned by the people who start them.

There are numerous obstacles to entrepreneurship. For anybody living paycheck to paycheck or even able to save a little money, the costs of starting a business are beyond their reach. They must turn to a bank, venture capitalist, or other person or entity who is high enough in the Pyramid to have sufficient funds to loan, and convince them to invest in or loan money for the venture. Most such people and institutions are not inclined to make such a loan to an applicant who is financially barely getting by, with very rare exceptions.

The cost of starting a business legally is almost always quite high. Most businesses require a physical location, licenses, permits, fees, inspections, equipment, and many other up-front costs. It typically takes at least a few years for a new business to reach the break-even point and begin to make a profit. In the meantime the business owner must either have other financial resources to live and run the business from, or must go deeper into debt. For the majority of people in the lower reaches of the Pyramid, this is simply not possible, no matter how strong their work ethic may be.

Competition is fierce and relentless. The small starting business must compete with established businesses small and large, including chains and corporations that can easily afford to undercut the new business long enough to make them fail. The small business simply cannot afford to take a constant loss by pricing below cost. Mega-corporations, large businesses and chains can and frequently do use these tactics to eliminate smaller neighborhood businesses. They often own or have preferred relationships with their supply chains that are not accessible to small businesses.

For the huge majority of aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners, their venture leads to exhaustion, more debt and stress. Among those small businesses that become solvent and self-sustaining, the living it affords the owner and employees is not much better than would come with a typical job. The main difference is more aesthetic than financial, which for some people is important; but it is a difficult trade-off.

In addition, only people with a good talent for business and knowledge of how to run one will have any realistic chance of succeeding. The world is full of excellent, hard-working artists, artisans, chefs, opticians, craftspeople, technicians, masseurs, painters, roofers, mechanics and more who carry crushing debt because their talents and skills did not include those necessary to succeed in business.

Beyond traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, there are now online businesses that are attractive because of the generally lower start-up costs. But in order to succeed, the online entrepreneur must face even fiercer competition and find a niche that is not already saturated. One must master the art of becoming favored by search engines, which often involves paying money to get higher priority, having a high degree of technical knowledge and skill, and being a consummate marketer/promoter/advertiser. The overall prospects are not much more favorable than with traditional businesses.

Lastly, there are the Multi-Level Marketing and Network Marketing outfits. A large percentage of them are pure scams, so the prospective MLM'er must do a lot of research to make sure that the company they select is legitimate and actually affords the possibility of making income legally.

These companies all have certain things in common, though the details vary quite a bit. The “prospect” (You) will be invited to a “business” or “opportunity” meeting where you will hear glowing descriptions and testimonials about the incredible business and the amazing income to be made in pursuing it. They all highlight the fact that most jobs are barely or sub-living wage and carry a lot of stress and loss of dignity (“JOB = Just Over Broke” is a common argument). They all point out that at most jobs the employee is working hard for bare subsistence while making someone else rich.

Some "business opportunity" presenters even point out the fact that the dominant economic setup is a pyramid scheme, and then put forth their company as an alternative to this, emphasizing the concepts of owning one's own business, being one's own boss, having no ceiling on one's possible income, accessible promotion opportunities, lower start-up costs than with traditional businesses, and the possibility of "getting in" with no experience or background. Sadly, though they point out some of the flaws in the Capitalist paradigm, they do not seek to motivate people to abandon the pyramid and replace it with a more viable paradigm. Instead, they offer themselves as a way to be among those who ascend high on the pyramid. As for the rest, the implication is that if they aren’t interested, then they made their choice and deserve what they get.

Success stories are shared of people who joined the business after heartbreaking struggles getting nowhere, who are now making "six figures." In those MLM’s which are actually legitimate, these claims are mostly true.

The majority of them also present their goods and/or services and business model as superior to others, offering multiple ways to sign up: as a customer (get a discount on these awesome products), or as a business owner (agent, associate, representative, consultant, etc). They offer a choice of several levels of business membership, typically 3 or 4 levels that can be summed up as basic, mid-level, and deluxe with maybe a super-deluxe option. Some allow you to upgrade after joining at a lower level, some don't.

Levels typically have impressive-sounding names like Entrepreneur level, Presidential Level, and CEO Level. In addition, one can advance up a ladder of increasingly status-implying titles as one achieves greater levels of success, business volume and recruitment stats. Typical titles are either status symbol names like Diamond, Black Diamond, Double Black Diamond, etc. or Silver, Gold, Platinum, Uranium, Plutonium; or they may have corporate executive sounding names like Executive, Manager, District Manager, Regional Manager, Regional Vice President, etc.

These businesses will usually offer to train new members, which the legitimate ones in fact do, though the quality of training depends on the person who signed you up. A lot is said about "hard work" which in practice is 2 things: sales and recruitment. This is not usually emphasized. In fact, prospective recruits are often told that it is not sales, that it is really more like helping people.

Buy-in costs range from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. Some involve recurring monthly fees. Some involve buying a minimum amount of product monthly. Some require the member to purchase product to sell; others do not.

In all of these types of businesses, one hears the expression: "It's a numbers game." One is usually, though not always, encouraged or required to try to recruit and sell first to family and friends, then to expand through a variety of methods to sell to the wider public. One is usually told they need to sell to 10 - 20 people a day in order to generate a sufficient ongoing steam of new customers and recruits to generate a living income. It is ongoing and never-ending.

There are indeed individuals who thrive in these kinds of businesses; but in practice the overwhelming majority of people who join them invest a lot of time, effort and money but are never able to significantly improve their situation, often doing the MLM business in every spare moment while working their sub or barely living wage jobs. Almost all people who sign up for these businesses are occupants of the lower reaches of the Pyramid, since those few high enough up the Pyramid to be able to purchase their Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness have no need to seek a way to get to where they already are.

While it is in fact possible to ascend the Pyramid through such businesses, in practice very few actually do. In order to succeed to that degree, one needs certain innate talents, abilities, skills, and a certain kind of personality and mindset, including a passion for the business at an almost religious level of intensity. One must be a natural "closer," willing to alienate family and friends if that's what it takes to succeed in the business. One must be comfortable viewing every person one meets as either a potential customer and/or recruit, or else not worth one's time. One must be prepared to live, breathe and sleep the business. One's passion for the business must be equivalent to that of an evangelical missionary, a political or ideological activist, or a drug addict. If these characteristics don't describe you, then you are unlikely to be successful using these businesses as a way to buy your life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, respect, freedom, and quality of life under Capitalist paradigms.

There are just enough people who are able to thrive this way, to perpetuate the illusion that this is a viable alternative, a way out, a way up, to keep aspiring people signing up. Like all Capitalist paradigms, this is another pyramid scheme and not a true alternative to mainstream Capitalism.

Unfortunately, the Capitalist paradigm is inherently unstable and cannot be made to enhance and sustain the happiness, well-being and empowerment of the people, nor can it be adjusted or modified to foster a symbiotic, synergistic, win-win set of relationships among individuals and sectors of the community. Just as a lead balloon cannot be expected to fly or even float, the only way to create meaningful change in the direction of significantly greater empowerment, happiness and well-being is to transition to an entirely new paradigm based on a whole new set of principles and criteria.