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PREFACE The first edition of this book reported that entrepreneurial firms have been responsible for creating nearly 80 percent of all new jobs in the United States over the past 20 years. As of April 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, since the end of the Great Recession, small businesses have created 62 percent of all net new private-sector jobs. These are still significant numbers representing nearly two-thirds of all jobs created in the U.S. economy.1 Additionally, small businesses continue to be the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. The Small Business Administration released reports between 2014 and January 2019 that reveal the extent of the impact of small busi- nesses in the U.S. economy. We discuss these findings in Chapter 1. Presi- dent Barack Obama acknowledged the significance of entrepreneurship to job creation in a speech he gave on regulatory reform on June 17, 2009. The president, in that speech, stated in relevant part: I believe that jobs are best created not by government, but by businesses and entrepreneurs who are willing to take a risk on a good idea. I believe that our role is not to disparage wealth, but to expand its reach not to stifle the market, but to strengthen its ability to unleash the creativity and inno- vation that still make this nation the envy of the world. Implicit in the president’s remarks is the recognition that entrepreneurs are continually discovering opportunities to provide new and innovative