CFD 461 – Andrew Yang on Creating More Entrepreneurs

August 2nd, 2018

Andrew Yang is the founder of Venture for America and former CEO of Manhattan Prep. He previously served as Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship under President Barack Obama's Administration. He is the author of the bestselling book Smart People Should Build Things: How to Restore Our Culture of Achievement, Build a Path for Entrepreneurs, and Create New Jobs in America.

Podcast Highlights

 Who is Andrew Yang?

Andrews origin began when he was growing up. He always related to the marginalized little guy or gal and that is what lead him to prepare to run for President as Democrat in the 2020 election.

Many of the businesses of the past don’t make sense anymore. We need to change the underlying rules of the economy and encourage entrepreneurship as we go forward.

  • Creating More Entrepreneurs

Automation is a good thing, the trouble is the benefits of automating are being concentrated in a small number of hands. There are going to be clear winners and loser when it comes to automation, and there will be many more losers than winners.

We are in the greatest period of a technological shift in history, Andrew’s proposition could potentially grow the economy by 13% as people would have more money to spend.

Entrepreneurs have a tendency to have a mindset of abundance and optimism, but right now the reverse is true about the average American. If we can reverse the mindset of scarcity, we can change the economy and the lives of everyone across the country.

The next stage of the economy is artisanal businesses that focus the value created on the local community.

Right now the general rule is you must work to survive in a subsistence economy, and this largely favors bigger businesses. The process of change has already begun with the sharing economy.

  • The Culture of Achievement

By the numbers, most smart people become highly capable professionals in a handful of industries and a few specific cities. We need to get our bright young people to solve difficult problems instead of filling out spreadsheets for large corporations.

We have lost the spirit of enterprise, we need to rewrite the rules of the game as we wake up to the reality that our kids are likely to have less wealth than previous generations for the first time in history.

Andrew wants to put more resources in place to make it so that losing your job isn’t an existential crisis.

Reference: Smart People Should Build Things: How to Restore Our Culture of Achievement, Build a Path for Entrepreneurs, and Create New Jobs in America, Andrew Yang

  • Andrew’s Takeaway

Universal basic income is inevitable for our society and the sooner we wake up to that and make it a reality the better off we all will be.

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