Page 72 - Fear Unmasked Flipbook

FEAR UNMA S KED

Let’s start with the question: Why the hell would
anyone listen to an entrepreneur instead of a doctor
anyways? To dig into this issue, let’s look at some stats
on entrepreneurship. About 16 million or 4.9 percent
of the United States is self-employed. We also know
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that 96 percent of businesses will fail within ten
years and that only 30 percent of businesses have
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five employees or more. Thus, the percentage of the
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population who has been in business for ten years of
more and has grown a company to more than four
employees is 0.06% (0.049 x 0.040 x 0.300); in other
words, roughly one in every 1,700 people in the US is
a successful business owner.
Let’s compare that to the 1.1 million doctors in
the United States. 0.34 percent of the population

or roughly one in every 300 people in the US
is a doctor. Now, does this mean successful
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entrepreneurs are smarter than doctors? I’m sure
most entrepreneurs would readily admit that their
book smart memorization skills range from “only if
I must” to “couldn’t memorize if my life depended on
it.” The list of accomplished entrepreneurs from Bill
Gates, to myself, to Walt Disney who didn’t graduate
from college is long and illustrious, and none of us

could have made it as doctors, due to our inability to
sit still, memorize, and follow procedures. One of the
original dropouts, when questioned on his inability

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