The entrepreneur myth persists because it reinforces core American values

Evidence

The myth of the entrepreneur is so popular because it aligns with core American values. Orvis Collins and David Moore write that the entrepreneur is a “heroic figure in American folklore akin perhaps, to Davy Crockett and other truly indigenous epic types—stalwartindependents who hewed forests, climbed over the mountains, built new communities, rose from nothing to something, and did all the things American heroes must have done to build a great nation.” American culture places a high value on the “self-made man” and the rags-to-riches story of Horatio Alger, both of which are still remarkably persistent tropes in popular discourse and business writing. The image of the successful high-tech entrepreneur is surprisingly similar across twenty-five years of technology development: young, rich, famous, intrinsically risk-taking, innovative, and intelligent. This image has deep implications for the way the technology industry functions, particularly when it comes to gender. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 682

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: the gendered blueprint of the ‘self-made man’ startup founder, and how it silently excludes anyone who isn’t young, rich, and male from imagined entrepreneurial identity.
• XREF: connects to: Entrepreneurial heroism persists as a core value across millennial and Gen Z culture. — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 820; The American dream ideology frames success pursuit as virtuous rather than materialistic; Web 2.0 repackaged American mythologies like rags-to-riches entrepreneurship into startup culture — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 22 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Web 2.0 repackaged American mythologies like rags-to-riches entrepreneurship into startup culture #corroborates (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 22
• Entrepreneurial heroism persists as a core value across millennial and Gen Z culture. #corroborates (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 820
• Meritocracy myth rebrands the American Dream as anyone-can-start-an-internet-company aspiration. #corroborates (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 663
• The American dream ideology frames success pursuit as virtuous rather than materialistic #corroborates (0.75)
• Entrepreneurship became a generalized ideal pervading personal identity and relationships #expands (0.75)
• Silicon Valley’s self-image elevates entrepreneurship as society’s universal problem-solving model #expands (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 713
• Corporate ownership of franchises shifted blockbusters from labor solidarity stories to entrepreneur narratives #corroborates (0.70) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 446
• American founding documents and frontier myths serve bourgeois class interests #corroborates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 873