In that article I linked to, I thought this quote was very interesting....

"There is the Wild West mentality that is very attractive to entrepreneurs."

What do you think, is there a bit of the "Wild West" mentality in many entrepreneurs?

I think there's a link.... Why did settlers move to the West (or why do people move for any reason)?

One of the biggest reasons is to find opportunity....

And of course, that's what successful entrepreneurs tend to do -- look for opportunity and take advantage of it when they find it!

This mentality, to move for opportunity, wasn't confined to the Wild West days. We can see it in many migrants today....

I've always been interested in the fact that many new migrants often become successful businesspeople. When you think of new immigrants to almost any country, you can often find these new immigrants involved in some entrepreneurial activity, such as running small stores, or even driving a taxi cab (which has a bit of an entrepreneurial feel to it if you think about it)....

In many cases that's because those are the opportunities they see. I think that to migrate in order to realize more opportunity requires a little bit of an entrepreneurial mindset at the very beginning....

I know that many people on this forum had migrant ancestors, who moved to where you are living now in order to find a better opportunity. That means that many of us have this migrant entrepreneurship in our blood! (And even if you don't, it's not hard to understand and get the same mindset....)

And to me, that's essentially quite similar to the mentality of a pioneer in the Wild Wild West! The essence is the same.... To give up what's familiar to you, to be willing to take on some risks, in order to take advantage of greater opportunity.... :)

- Dien Rice