Entrepreneurship Will Lift Minorities Up

Entrepreneurship offers all Americans, no matter their background, a way to achieve financial independence and the American Dream. Entrepreneurship rewards goods and services that the market values independent of the financial resources, SAT scores or personal pedigrees of the people selling them.

I didn’t start out in the home-improvement industry. I worked my way up the corporate ladder only to be fired by a capricious boss. When I found myself unemployed at 49, I had every reason to be bitter. But I turned to entrepreneurship, which made my life’s second act far better than I could have imagined.

With almost no money, I had the idea to open a hardware store, a lumberyard and a garden store all in one. What began as a single store in Georgia grew to more than 2,000 locations nationwide and made me a billionaire in the process. Only in America could a member of an ethnic minority from a poor immigrant family write that kind of success story.

The financial rewards pale in comparison to the emotional rewards of seeing my company help others become financially independent through entrepreneurship. The Home Depot democratized the home-improvement, landscaping and building trades so that anyone willing to work up a sweat and learn some basic skills could immediately start a sole proprietorship or small business serving some of the nation’s 80 million homeowners.

You can see the entrepreneurs driving around town in their trucks full of tools and material. Many of them are minorities. They don’t consider themselves victims of racial wealth or income gaps; they are actively overcoming economic disparities through work.

That isn’t happening only in building and landscaping. In almost every part of the economy, you’ll find entrepreneurial minorities breaking through difficult circumstances to achieve and live the American Dream. Accelerating this process is the key to bridging the country’s economic divides.

Unfortunately, government is moving in the wrong direction,…