I am grateful to Danny Stern and his associates for the material that follows.

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“Entrepreneurship” is derived from the French word meaning “the act of undertaking an endeavor” and it represents many things to many people. But according to Daniel Isenberg – Babson Global Professor of Management Practice and leading authority on international entrepreneurship – one thing entrepreneurship is not, is self-employment. If policymakers are to achieve the levels of entrepreneurship required to drive economic and social growth, they must stop confusing the two.

“Self-employment puts food on the table, which is quite essential, but it does not have the benefit to society that high-ambition, high-aspiration entrepreneurship does,” said Isenberg in a captivating keynote at the 10^th International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF) held recently in Bahrain. Making the distinction between self-employment and entrepreneurship is the first of seven principles to ignite an entrepreneurial revolution. Other critical principles he proposed included: focusing geographically, intervening holistically, and creating an independent, non-government “SWAT” team to carry out the job.

With the bold prediction that any region, state, city or country can create tangible and measurable entrepreneurship within only five years, he asserted that leaders have no choice but to follow these guidelines to transform their economies.

”The nature of our civilization depends on the spread of entrepreneurship,” concluded Isenberg. “Entrepreneurship – sustainable, high aspiration, and on a massive scale – will determine our future.”

Read and view video of Isenberg’s powerful presentation by clicking the embedded links. He expands on his ideas in Harvard Business Review, in which he outlines his nine prescriptions for creating an entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Isenberg’s work emerges from Babson Global, the global action-research subsidiary of Babson College, the world’s leading center of entrepreneurial studies. The foremost authority, scholar and advisor on entrepreneurship programs, he has written and led numerous groundbreaking entrepreneurial initiatives and case studies. At Babson, Isenberg founded and spearheads the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project that helps governments around the world create the policies, structures, programs and climate that foster entrepreneurship.