Mark Cuban, one of America’s most successful businessmen, wrote a great post in this blog regarding President-Elect Obama’s first big mistake – failing to have an entreprenuer on his advisory board.
If we are going to solve our current economic problems, our President needs to get first hand information on the impact his proposed policies will have on real Joe the Plumbers. People who are 1 person companies living job to job, hoping they get paid on time. We need to know what the impact of his policies will be on the individually owned Chrysler Dealership in Iowa. The bodego in Manhattan. The mobile phone software startup out of Carnegie Mellon. The event planner in Dallas. The barbershop in LA. The restaurant in Boston.
Entrepreneurs that start and run small businesses will be the propellant in this economy. PE Obama needs to have the counsel of those who will take the real risk inherent in creating companies and jobs. Those who put their money and lives on the line with their business.
Without it, the rules of unintended consequences of any economic policy could hit you in the mouth in ways you never expected. Things like forcing companies from being taxpayers to the underground cash economy, or forcing new hires to be independent contractors to avoid having to pay their insurance or higher matching social security amounts. Your current group has no one with 100pct of their networth on the line. I promise you that the possibility of
losing it all will provide a completely different perspective than any of the “knowledge” the esteemed, learned members of his current advisory team offer.
I am not sure what other Presidents had true entreprenuers in their cabinets or in other advisory positions – but it is an excellent idea. It makes no sense that entreprenuers create the bulk of the jobs in this country -yet have little voice in Washington.
On a completely different note, most of you probably thought with Mark Cuban in the headline – I was going to talk about the SEC investigation involoving him. Nope. But if you want to read his response, he posted in his blog about that himself.