Andrew Jackson - My personal favorite president and a champion of small business.
Abraham Lincoln
James Garfield
Theodore Roosevelt
Warren G. Harding
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
George H. W. Bush
This is an intriguing list, but I think there's a bigger picture. Depending on how broadly you define it, a great number of U.S. Presidents were entrepreneurs of a sort:
- George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and most of the early Presidents were landowners who ran commercial farms in addition to their public service and other careers.
- Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur and Calvin Coolidge were attorneys in private practice.
- Current President George W. Bush was also an oil entrepreneur like his father.
So set your sights high, entrepreneurs - you don't have to have to have a lifelong career in the military or politics in order to be President. Frankly, I think we need more entrepreneurs becoming President.
I'm reminded of the classic line from the movie Dave, in which Dave, a look-alike for the President who has ended up taking his place when he has a stroke, invites his CPA friend, Murray Blum, in to take a look at the federal budget. After a few minutes of looking it over, Murray proclaims: "I tell you, I've been over this stuff a bunch of times - it just doesn't add up. Who does these books? If I ran my business this way, I'd be out of business."
This is the most vacuous article I have read on “about”. Although the theme is interesting, the article does no more than saying that presidents have jobs before they become presidents.
The vast majority of presidents (24 out of 43) were lawyers, but very few in their own practice before they became professional politicians. 10 out of 43 were career military or had extensive military service. Many (I don’t have an exact count) were career politicians before becoming president.
So I think it’s noteworthy to point out those that were successful entrepreneurs before becoming President, as they buck the stereotype of the President having to be a lawyer or soldier turned politican. Apparently Inc. thought so too — they provided the original article, I just added some commentary pointing out that the picture is bigger than just those 10 that they chose to highlight.