potflo17‘Member the story about the rabbit who spent his entire day in the beet patch, eating beets? The tasty carrots were just a row or two over, but he never even thought to hop over there.

I’m thinking that if only someone had taken the time to pull a carrot out of the ground and take it over to Flopsy, he would have gained a better appreciation for carrot cuisine.

In that carrot-sharing spirit from my start-up world-view garden (quick: name one proven small biz entrepreneur in guvment), …anyway, here are twelve ideas we should try.

Twelve Ideas That Might Get Things Moving


1. I wrote sometime back that Pres-elect Obama should convene a high-powered advisory cabinet made up of some of our nation’s most successful entrepreneur-thinkers like Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and even Scott Adams and Seth Godin. Then ask them to make a month-long commitment speaking around the country to schools, neighborhood groups and the public…simply relating their own stories in a four-hour, you-can-do-this-too seminar. People from Congress should attend at least two of these events, but will not be allowed to speak. Eighth graders get automatic A’s for attending.

2. Pres. Obama should personally call the ten wealthiest Americans (he has their tax records), invite them to lunch, then after lunch let them pick out a cabinet member to shadow for the rest of the day (job sharing idea), later have them spend the night at the White House, and then early the next morning take them to NYC and ask them to buy stock in any ten companies that they don’t own now. Ask them to invest $50 million+ that day in the stock market in a very conspicuous manner. Set up press conferences so that they can tell the rest of America why they bought shares in the companies they selected. Invite big bloggers and prolific twitterers to the press conferences.

3. Try my idea of giving $100,000 to each proven entrepreneur who requests it to build a new company or to expand the current one. I have to qualify this idea now, given the events of the last month or so: do not put restrictions on this money other than ‘go build your business.’

4. Instead of giving $1,500-$2,000 per month to everyone on un-employment, figure out a way to transfer that payment directly to the small business so that they can hire someone.

5. Us entrepreneurs want to start new businesses. Just give us the rules. Make no mistake—lowering the capital gains tax to zero for businesses formed in 2009—would have an amazing effect on start-ups. Amazing.

6. If you invest in a new company, or in a local business, make this investment an immediate tax credit, even better than home mortgages and charitable deductions. After a two-year holding period, capital gains would also be zero.

7. Provide incentives to neighborhood angel groups or networks to find and fund local businesses. Wal-Mart should be guilted into matching these funds, adding 20% to each dollar committed.

8. Every CEO who requests bailout funds should be fired immediately. This might end the race to the DC money spigot. If the porn industry thinks they deserve a bailout, who’s next?..the newspapers?

9. Ask Glenn Beck, Joy Behar, Keith Olbermann, Bill O’Reilly, Katrina vanden Heuvel and “insert your person here” attend a Tony Robbins 3-day event or, at least, to a How To Improve Your Manners seminar.

10. For small business, instead of rules, regulations or restrictions think incentives.

11. Don’t demonize corporate wrong-doers, but throw the book at them. More perp walks for people like Madoff and Petters but fewer broad brush, “they’re all crooked” insinuations.

12. Elevate discourse. Why is Barbara Walters, a heretofore renowned journalist, discussing her vibrator on national TV? Someone needs to get good at embarrassing some people for this kind of stuff. Where is Will Rogers when you need him?

What ideas do YOU have?  There are no bad ideas, at least here at WWDS, where the kicker text is still “frequently wrong, never in doubt.”