Start-Up Century: Why We’re All Becoming Entrepreneurs—and How to Make It Work for Everyone

Entrepreneurship can solve the decline in stable, well-paying jobs, suggests venture capitalist Wise in his enthusiastic if unrealistic debut treatise. He argues that technological advances have made it relatively inexpensive to start a business, discussing how a disgruntled lawyer quit her job and created a profitable website for drafting DIY wills “for a little under £1,000.” To foster such ventures, Wise proposes that governments provide digital literacy education and generous funding to unemployed individuals attempting to start a business, as well as loans for small business owners to expand their operations. Wise is remarkably candid about the challenges of an “entrepreneur-led economy,” so much so that readers may be convinced entrepreneurship isn’t the panacea he argues it is. For instance, he acknowledges that the “day-to-day financial experience of most entrepreneurs is plagued with insecurity.” Not everyone will be convinced by his assertion that greater government support for entrepreneurs will ameliorate this liability enough for self-employment to constitute a viable alternative to the decline of secure, stable jobs. He also doesn’t address the question, if everyone is an entrepreneur, who will work for the entrepreneurs’ companies? There is some solid guidance on how to better support fledgling enterprises, but Wise oversteps in claiming entrepreneurship offers a solution to modern labor woes. This doesn’t persuade. (Feb.)