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Happy Birthday, Colorado

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: I think there's a reason Ayn Rand picked Colorado as the fictional last bastion of entrepreneurship in the dark world she described in "Atlas Shrugged." And today, when those who want to ride in the wagon are beginning to overburden those who are willing to pull it, American can take a lesson from the Centennial State. This nation is not about victims, or collectivism, or false socialist ideals. It's about rugged individualism. It's about being willing to start a business, to create opportunities where none existed before, to build wealth through toil and ingenuity....

Happy Birthday, Colorado

Entrepreneurship Led To Statehood, Not Statism Yesterday, my beloved home state of Colorado - The Centennial State - turned 135. Granted statehood August 1, 1876 by President Ulysses S. Grant, Colorado has long been home to great pioneers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else counted among the self-reliant.

This week, we celebrate Colorado's admission to the Union, and I can't help but wonder what such Mile-High Founders as Zeb Pike, Molly Brown, Kit Carson, and others would think of the argument that has occupied our nation's leaders this week. Debt ceiling? Borrowing from foreign countries to pay "entitlements" to American citizens? Government spending run amok? Economic enslavement of generations in the country they helped create... with no end in sight?

Doubtless they'd have found it unbelievable - and pathetic.

I remember finding old mine shafts and tunnels in the mountains I called home as a teenager, and reflecting on the hardships that must've been ever-present in the lives of those who built Colorado. What backbreaking work it must've been to pull gold and silver out of those mountains... and what risk! Most of the mining pioneers left relatively secure lives out East to try their luck, and many died or fell horribly sick in the effort.

Why?

Because they knew there was a chance to strike it rich. To earn for themselves a life of freedom and independence. To create wonderful things in the world, not just for themselves, but for countless others as well.

I think there's a reason Ayn Rand picked Colorado as the fictional last bastion of entrepreneurship in the dark world she described in "Atlas Shrugged." And today, when those who want to ride in the wagon are beginning to overburden those who are willing to pull it, American can take a lesson from the Centennial State. This nation is not about victims, or collectivism, or false socialist ideals. It's about rugged individualism. It's about being willing to start a business, to create opportunities where none existed before, to build wealth through toil and ingenuity.

Want to join the Colorado spirit? Cut yourself loose from the society of dependence they are promoting back East, and paint your wagon. Start a business, so you aren't dependent upon the government or any company for your revenue. Get healthy, so you can stand the rigors of the mines where real gold is discovered. And get smart about the global conspiracy against wealth, and how it's threatening the very fabric of America.

Happy Birthday, Colorado. Thanks for being my home, and my inspiration, for most of my life. And thanks for being, as President Ronald Reagan once described America, that shining city on a hill. The statists have new influence these days, but don't despair. Once we all recognize the folly of collectivsm for the fool's gold that it is, real Americans will be back to claim the rich veins of true gold that are the birthright of a great nation - and of a truly wonderful state.

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Article Tags: entrepreneurship, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility, wealth building



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