One of the themes I’ve been tracking through this project is the power of entrepreneurship and small business not just to create jobs and wealth, but to serve as integral parts of local communities. This is something I think a lot about in my work with early stage healthcare companies — how can even venture-backed organizations be value oriented and community minded? It turns out they can, and I’m proud of the organizations I’ve worked with that have adopted this ethos.

In any event, in yesterday’s Times, David Sax wrote a beautiful paean to the value of local entrepreneurs. The crux of his argument:

The thing that we tend to forget when we study entrepreneurs only as engines of job creation, profits or other quantifiable markers of economic growth is that every entrepreneur is a person, with hopes, dreams and feelings. Their businesses are intricately tied into the fabric of their communities in a way that numbers simply can’t capture.

David Sax

It really makes us pause to think about what an “essential” business really is.