A single fact throws much of what we think we understand about entrepreneurship into confusion: over 90% of successful entrepreneurs make less money than other people who perform similar tasks and similar responsibilities, even after ten years of running their business. For example, an entrepreneur who owns a restaurant will most likely make less money over ten years than a person who manages a restaurant of a comparable size. This leads to a curious paradox: entrepreneurship, as a powerful engine of job creation, is an important economic activity, but economics can’t help us understand it—or even make sense of it.
