Book Review: The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson

The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson is my gateway book to entrepreneurship and to pursuing a more entrepreneurial lifestyle.  I will admit that this book caught my attention with it’s title and my first thought was “GREAT! Another doom and gloom perspective on the current and future economy.”  You might find yourself at times (if you pay attention to mainstream media’s outlook on labor markets and the threat that automation and outsourcing, specifically offshoring, poses for the American worker) start to feel very pessimistic about your future career prospects as well as the future for your children.  This book alone can ease much of your worries. Taylor uses several models throughout the book to better explain the positions he proposes about the state of the economy or society in general, like how the past several economies operated in specific domains and which domain the entrepreneurial economy will operate in.  A book that he references a decent amount is The Fourth Economy by Ron Davison.  One of the key takeaways from The Fourth Economy, that Taylor Pearson does a great job of expanding on is the idea that the current economy, as with previous economies, is transforming into something that can be more beneficial to society.  The current transformation is from the information economy into the entrepreneurial economy and that we must seize this opportunity to be entrepreneurs and realize our true potential.  We can realize a great deal of prosperity for ourselves and our communities.  He presents some figures that show the reduction in cost-of-capital it takes to create a successful business in present day.  He also highlights several case studies of entrepreneurs and how they created their businesses.  We really have an amazing opportunity in our lifetime of being able to take a computer that costs $1000 or less, going to a café with free Wi-Fi access, and creating a business that can generate more money for you than going to a job that would require an MBA or years worth of experience.  I highly recommend this book and believe it is a must read for anyone pursuing entrepreneurship as a career or lifestyle.