Neil Armstrong’s famous moon landing quote — “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — came to mind the other day. Plantronics worked with NASA and all of the Apollo shuttles; but that wasn’t the reason I thought of the quote. I recalled Armstrong’s words after reading “Why Entrepreneurs Will Save the World,” which just ran on the Forbes site. 
Forbes contributor Paul Brown contends that many policy makers and experts would like us to believe that effective and large scale change needs to come from the top down. However, he points out, change initiated from the top often collapses “under the weight of political ideology, infighting and competing personal agendas.” The way to break inaction and make the impossible possible is through small smart steps — a pilot project or just a different way of doing something.
Brown says of small, smart steps taken by individuals and organizations, “You don’t know what is going to happen and the only way you’re going to find out what is going to happen is take a step, and see where you are and figure out what the next step is.”
And here’s where you come in. “An entrepreneurial mindset is a wonderful tool to use to try to solve what seem to be unsolvable problems—everything from the health care crisis to social ills,” says Brown.
Brown’s piece about the value of your entrepreneurship to our national well being echoes the sentiments of many expressed during and following last week’s National Small Business Week. Huffington Post, for example, ran “Small Business Week Wrap-up: Reminder to Keep Our Entrepreneurs Top of Mind All Year Long,” in which John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO, Small Business Majority writes, “In early May, Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) released data revealing our nation’s smallest businesses — those with 1-49 employees — continue to outperform large businesses in the job creation arena. They generated roughly half of all new jobs in April, while large businesses created just over 3 percent.”
CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry, too, sounded its renewed call for greater attention and action by lawmakers and regulators to your needs. CompTIA said in an official press release:
“Small-and medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of the national economy, employing more than 50 percent of the country’s private sector workforce. …Within the IT industry, small technology companies account for 40 percent of all IT jobs and 98 percent of the nation’s IT firms; employ millions of Americans; and contribute billions of dollars annually to the nation’s economy.”
All this validates the vital role you play in moving our economy ahead and more. That’s why you should be confident to reach for the moon in your business. You’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can do it – by taking just one step at a time.