Each year since 2011, the month of November is celebrated as National Entrepreneurship Month in the United States, a time to recognize the business owners who serve their communities and bolster the American economy by creating employment for millions of people. During the second full week of November, Nov. 13 to 19 this year, we also recognize the American spirit of entrepreneurship abroad by celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week.

For people like me, this is a special time. Not that there’s some big celebration, or presents, or songs or even a Hallmark card selection. No, it’s just the idea that we can celebrate people who take risks to bring their ideas to the marketplace, and sometimes win big. From my perspective, the entrepreneur is the unsung hero of our economy.

Instinct often plays a crucial role in the life of an entrepreneur. From conception -- that “eureka” moment -- businesses that evolve from bold risk-taking frequently play by different rules than the typical organization.

Entrepreneurs are problem-solvers. Entrepreneurs inhabit a mystical world of inspiration, innovation and the subconscious. They are people in touch with their “inner child.” Like children, entrepreneurs can be impulsive, uninhibited and relentlessly experimental. These qualities aren’t exactly rampant in mainstream business.

For inspiration, I love to read about entrepreneurs. For example, Eli Whitney allegedly got the idea for the cotton gin by watching a fox try to raid his chicken coop. The fox couldn’t get in the coop, but it managed to get most of the feathers from its prey through the mesh. Whitney then began experimenting with a claw or rake to pull cotton fibers through a grid and leave the seeds behind.

Nolan Bushnell was always interested in electronics going back to his days as a ham radio operator when he was just 10 years old. The video game craze began with his invention of Pong in the early 1970s, and he went on to found Atari when he was only 29.

Nina Blanchard, like many entrepreneurs, failed in business and went bankrupt as the owner of a franchised modeling school. She invested her last $300 in a Los Angeles modeling agency, thinking many of the models whom her school trained needed work. Photographers began calling her immediately but, fearing that her models weren’t ready for prime time yet, she announced they were unavailable. Word spread around town that the Blanchard Agency’s models were always booked, which attracted other models who wanted to be represented by the hottest agency in town.

Jasper (Jack) Newton Daniel was 7 years old, living in a small Tennessee town when he was offered a job as a houseboy for a Lutheran minister who was also a merchant, farmer and whiskey distiller. Jack was interested in learning the mysteries of making moonshine and sour mash. When his boss’s congregation pressured him to choose between the pulpit and his business, he offered his now 13-year-old apprentice the opportunity to buy his distillery on credit. In 1866, Jack Daniels bought the whiskey business that bears his name.

W.E. Boeing was a timber trader who was also a hobbyist aviator. He got into the business of making airplanes when his own plane broke down and he couldn’t get replacement parts. Since business was slow at first, his company also manufactured furniture and speedboats.

Whitney Wolfe Herd flipped traditional dating dynamics by letting women make the first move when she created Bumble in 2004. Within one year, the app had reached over 80 million matches. She became the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire and the youngest female CEO to ever take a company public in the United States

Wolfe Herd dethroned Katrina Lake as the youngest woman to take a company public. Lake founded Stitch Fix in 2011 before taking it public in 2017. Stitch Fix is an online shopping company that leverages data science and human stylists to pick out personalized outfits for busy working women as well as fashion options for all ages.

My own story pales in comparison to these superstars, but after more than 60 years in business, I’m quite satisfied that the leap of faith I took was worth it. Sure, there are a few things I would do differently. But I would never give up my resolve to make it work.

A king in a far-off land had an army of elephants. When his bravest, strongest elephant grew too old to fight, the king let him go free in a forest where he had everything he could eat and drink.

One day the elephant was drinking in a pond and got a leg stuck in the mud. As hard as he tried, he couldn't pull himself free. He finally just sat down, bellowing in pain. The king's servants heard him and rushed to help. But they couldn't pull the elephant's leg out of the mud.

The king went to see the elephant and, on the way, spotted a wise man from outside the village, so he asked for advice. The wise man thought for a moment and then said, "Play the drums of war."

The king assembled his army and ordered them to play their war drums. Soon the elephant perked up, rose and finally pulled his leg free.

All the elephant needed was to be reminded of who he was. People are much the same. Sometimes we forget who we are and what we are capable of and what we have accomplished.

And while it's unlikely you literally will get stuck in the mud, obstacles can set you back if you let them. When you feel like you can't escape the quicksand, you begin to question how you will ever get back on track. You need your own drums of war. You need self-confidence.

Self-confidence enables you to perform to the best of your abilities, without the fear of failure holding you back. It starts with believing in yourself.

Self-confidence alone won't help you succeed, but it's hard to get started or push through the inevitable obstacles without believing in yourself first.

Do you struggle with self-confidence? Almost everyone does at some point.

Self-confidence is extremely important in almost every aspect of our lives, yet many people don't believe in themselves as they should, and they find it difficult to become successful.

As one of my favorite motivational authors, Norman Vincent Peale, said, "Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."

A great way to improve your self-confidence is by identifying and developing your strengths. One of the secrets of success is making the most of your strengths. First, though, you have to determine what your strengths are -- and that may not be obvious, especially if you're just starting out or looking to make a career change.

I have had the privilege of mentoring hundreds of people over my lifetime. I always ask them two questions: What do you like to do? What are your strengths? Most have a good idea of what they like to do, but few of them know their own strengths.

Your strengths develop from a variety of sources: natural ability and aptitude, formal education, job experience, internships, research, hobbies, volunteer involvement and so on. You may not realize the depth of your knowledge or expertise, and that can seriously limit your job search or career path.

If you are in college, take advantage of aptitude and career-placement tests to determine your strengths, weaknesses and hidden talents. If you are not in school, you can find tests online or at your local library. Industrial psychologists are also most helpful in identifying areas that you should consider pursuing or avoiding.

A bit of Thomas Edison lore offers a tip for managers: Helping your employees develop their self-confidence is an important part of your role.

Edison experimented about 1,000 times in inventing the lightbulb. He called his "office boy" to test the bulb, but the boy was so nervous that he accidentally dropped it. He thought he would be fired, but Edison called the boy back two days later to test another lightbulb that Edison had constructed.

All his assistants were aghast and asked, "Why would you call on him? He might drop it again."

Edison responded, "It took me roughly one day to construct the bulb again, and even if he drops it again, I can construct the bulb within a day. But if I didn't give him the same task again, then he would have lost his self-belief and confidence, which would be very difficult to get back."

Mackay's Moral: Self-confidence by itself is of no value. It is useful only when put to work.

Joe was an ambitious young man who never missed a chance to submit a new idea to his boss, and his boss never missed a chance to reject Joe’s idea. But one day, Joe submitted a suggestion, and his boss said, “That’s sheer inspiration!”

“No,” said Joe, “it’s 99% aspiration and 1% inspiration.”

Inspiration often starts with aspiration.

Thomas Edison had a similar take when he said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

The definition of inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

That might be why Dolly Parton said, “When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.”

Face it: Sometimes it is hard to get inspired, for a variety of reasons. What is the best way to get back to being inspired?

Some of the most inspirational people I know are curious. The old saying “You learn something new every day” should be taken very seriously. There’s certainly no lack of opportunity. Be curious about everything around you. Do something that you’ve never done before, just for the experience.

The future belongs to the curious -- the ones who are not afraid to try something, explore it, poke at it, question it and turn it inside out. Let curiosity turn “I don’t know” into “I want to find out.” Curiosity makes us interested in a broad range of information. We learn for the joy of learning.

Curiosity is a hunger to explore and a delight in discovery. When we are curious, we approach the world with a childlike habit of poking and prodding and asking questions. We are attracted to new experiences.

Another way to spark inspiration is through imagination. It’s never too late to develop your imagination, although I would caution that the longer you suppress it, the more challenging it will be. Even if you don’t think of yourself as the creative type, you can always amp your imagination up with a little effort.

Creativity, thinking outside the box, is another way to get inspired. What has always baffled me, however, is how we got in that box in the first place, and why it is so hard to get out. It can get downright claustrophobic.

Connection is yet another path to inspiration. Harvard University tracked the physical and emotional health of 700 people. They followed these people and tested them (e.g., blood samples, brain scans) for 75 years. Here’s the primary conclusion: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Good relationships help you deal with life’s minor annoyances and your most challenging problems. They can snap you out of a listless state and keep you inspired.

Why do most people seem to get their inspirations overnight? Because inspiration often comes from dreams. So don’t just follow your dreams, chase them. Maybe that’s why entertainer Carol Burnett said, “When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go.”

The creation of Google can be traced back to a dream Larry Page had in 1996. Page had a nightmare in which he was admitted into college because of a clerical error and thought he would be kicked out at any moment. That anxiety fueled a dream of downloading and storing the internet on individual PCs. When he woke up, he was curious to see if it was possible, so he did the math. It wasn’t, given the amount of data, but he could save everything as individual links. That gave him the idea of creating a searchable database of links to web pages that led to the creation of Google.

The melody for one of the Beatles’ greatest songs “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney in a dream. In “The Beatles Anthology,” McCartney recalls: “I woke up one morning with a tune in my head and I thought, ‘Hey, I don’t know this tune -- or do I?’ It was like a jazz melody ... I went to the piano and found the chords to it, made sure I remembered it and then hawked it round to all my friends, asking what it was: ‘Do you know this? It’s a good little tune, but I couldn’t have written it because I dreamt it.’”

Speaking of the Beatles, John Lennon, a self-declared dreamer, said his inspiration for one of his bestselling songs came from a dream, and it was appropriately titled “#9 Dream.”

Mackay’s Moral: Aspire to inspire before you expire.