Businesses that started in garages — including Google, Apple, Amazon, Mattel, Hewlett-Packard, and Lender's Bagels — were the topic of a column I wrote a few months ago. The latest example comes courtesy of the Economist magazine, which profiles Abe Karem, the aerospace engineer behind the Predator drone: "Mr. Karem founded a company, Leading Systems, in the garage of his Los Angeles home and began work on a drone that would ultimately transform the way America wages war."
I love the garage-based business story, in part because it encapsulates the upward mobility and sense of possibility at the heart of the American dream. It also pushes back against all the concern about income inequality, because it's a reminder that many of the most successful American entrepreneurs didn't start rich, but that the opportunity is there for those with a brain and a garage and a good idea and some luck and the willingness to work hard.