Once upon a time an entrepreneur had to jump through very few government hoops to start a business. Once upon a time the US had the most productive and free economy in the world. Both those once upon a times are in the rearview mirror. From Simon Black at sovereignman.com:
Last week during a long overdue vacation, a close friend of mine recommended reading the autobiography of Rich DeVos called Simply Rich.
DeVos is a billionaire entrepreneur who started countless ventures during his nine decades on this earth.
Back in the 1946, for example, DeVos started an airline… virtually overnight.
He just bought an airplane and started flying people around. No rules. No regulations.
They didn’t even have an airport. The local airfield north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they were based, hadn’t been completed yet.
As DeVos recounts in his book, “We put pontoon floats on our plane and took off and landed on the Grand River, which ran along the airfield.”
His first office at the airfield was an old chicken coop that he found, washed in the river, and re-painted.
The following year he and his partner opened up one of Michigan’s first “Drive Through” restaurants at the airfield, catering to passengers, workers, flight students, and spectators who came by in the evenings just to marvel at the planes.
Again, no rules. No regulations.
They just saw an opportunity and went for it.
DeVos started another business selling ice cream; another offering fishing excursions on Lake Superior; and another delivering trucks cross-country.
To continue reading: A great story from when America was still the Land of Opportunity
