I think there’s something about knowing you need to care for a large family (e.g. a member of a religion that values having lots of kids) that is motivating for entrepreneurs in a way I don’t always hear about e.g. entrepreneurial tendencies among Hasidic Jews and Mormons
For Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the entrepreneurship roots go back to the early church history. Between 1831-1847, members of the church established 4 settlements and were expelled from 3(Kirtland, OH; Western Missouri; Nauvoo, IL; Salt Lake City). These areas were all frontiers at the time, and grew to become the largest cities in their region, which drew fear and persecution from people in the surrounding areas. Salt Lake was many hundreds of miles from the closest white settlement, and Brigham Young intentionally assigned/coerced/funded as many crafts and industries as possible to reduce dependence on trade with the (indifferent to hostile) United States. And established dozens of settlements throughout the Mountain West. So you have generations of entrepreneurs that had a captive market that needed EVERYTHING, and only internal competition.
Also, many Latter-day Saints go on 2 year missions in their late teens/early 20s, where you mostly self-direct your proselyting in the area you are assigned to. Good sales experience, self-starting, persistence, etc.
The last point can't be overstated. Sales is largely about overcoming and largely overcoming rejection. After 1000 rejections, they roll off. Lots of people stop at the first or second.
I really liked the book The Mormon Way of Doing Business[1]. The central idea of the book is that a high commitment church like LDS is a great training ground for business with many examples including the mission example that you cite above.
I think having a tight-knit community of people willing to do each other favors in the face of a world that may not necessarily approve of your beliefs also plays a big part. Also true of both conservative/Orthodox Jews and Mormons.
That'd be pretty to think so, but the wide majority of the Satmar community lives in poverty and is dependent on government benefits. The tendency towards entrepreneurship -- if there is one -- is more likely to be the result of being unwilling or unable to assimilate into a non-religious society.
I can't speak for the LDSs, since I don't know them.
I grew up LDS my whole pre-adult life. There's a big focus on self-reliance. Also, the men are supposed to serve missions for two years (go teach about Jesus and the church). I imagine the skillset required to go door-to-door teaching people about something is very transferrable to other sales, which is very important when being an entrepreneur.
-Just out of curiosity, doesn't that same obligation to serve missions apply to women? I used to live right next to an apartment owned by the Mormon church in a small Norwegian town; on two occasions the missionaries were female.
Oddly enough, the most efficient mission they did (whether they were male or female!) was to simply not make such a big deal of it; being a rather devout Lutheran myself, we quickly agreed there was no need to attempt converting each other - though they were always good conversation partners and with a seemingly genuine desire to be of assistance any way they possibly could.
Apparently, the incoming ones were to an extent briefed on the locals by the departing ones - I had a chuckle being playfully greeted by a new pair of missionaries as "Oh, so you are that stubborn heathen we've been hearing about..."
Missionaries with a well-developed sense of humour.
Spencer W. Kimball said,
"Every boy and many girls and couples should serve missions. Every prospective missionary should prepare morally, spiritually, mentally, and financially all of his life in order to serve faithfully, efficiently, and well in the great program of missionary work” (“Advice to a Young Man: Now Is the Time to Prepare,” New Era, June 1973, 9; italics added)."
I grew up with a lot of Mormons...anecdotally would say their families were more often SMB owners than not. Utah also has a pretty happening tech scene nowadays.
I am a Mormon SMB owner, and I agree with your point, but in the interest of full disclosure, there is a darker side to this tendency as well. Utah (read Mormons) is the MLM capital of the world, with other get rich quick schemes being pretty popular as well.
I had always wondered if there was a link between MLMs and Mormons. They are always overly upbeat and Christian (classic Mormon stereotypes) in their marketing, and so many of them are in Utah.
Exactly, it probably has more to do with setting your own hours plus not needing to ask permission to take off for religious holidays or even Saturdays.
Self-employment of any kind gives you a lot more freedom to integrate your religious practice into your working life without friction. I suspect that has much more to do with it than family size or any inherent entrepreneurialism.
(correlation isn't causation, but) fathers on average have a higher income than non-fathers. I can definitely imagine the increased urgency at work when you have more mouths to feed.
