A few years ago, I was invited to speak at an event in Mobile, Ala. Driving from Indiana, I stopped for the night in Nashville, Tenn., but on the way back, I decided to drive all the way from Mobile to Indianapolis. I had planned an early start, but, enjoying the company of good friends, I didn’t leave until well after noon.

That’s an 11-hour drive under the best of circumstances. Add in some traffic, the inevitable construction around Music City and occasional stops for fuel and bathroom breaks, and I was rolling into Indy at about 2:30 a.m..

There’s something remarkable about driving through any American city in the middle of the night, and Indianapolis is no different. Circling the city on Interstate 465, I found myself marveling at the sheer number and variety of businesses. There were hundreds of businesses. Thousands of them. In one city. Even discounting the “highway buzz” from 13 hours on the road, it was truly awe-inspiring.

It’s a scene — and a circumstance — that Americans take for granted. But every single one of those businesses represents an investment of time and money; blood, sweat and tears that those of us who have never started a business cannot understand.

And yet we all benefit from it. Of course, it isn’t just individuals and families who benefit from the availability of commerce; businesses, too, need other businesses: For payroll services, shipping, those neon signs I was admiring in the middle of the night, or construction for (God willing) expansion.

Even the services we think of as being provided by government depend upon private enterprise. Those highway expansions use expensive equipment designed, built and sold by businesses. The U.S. Postal Service cannot deliver without vehicles made by auto manufacturers. Law enforcement needs uniforms, firearms, vehicles, electronic equipment.

We have some of the most beautiful and well-equipped colleges and universities in the world, and both private and state schools depend upon the generosity of donors who give the funds to build the academic buildings, the dormitories, the laboratories and libraries, the sports facilities.

Why does this matter? Because America was not built by “capitalism,” per se, but by entrepreneurial capitalism. America’s government, culture and economic structures are such that anyone, anywhere can start and grow a business.

And frankly, a lot of Americans do not understand anything about entrepreneurship.

Most business in America is small business. According to the U.S. Census, there are about 30 million firms in the U.S. in any given year. Most aren’t even incorporated. And only a few thousand of those that are corporations are publicly traded. More than half of the new jobs created each year come from firms that have fewer than 20 people.

You don’t need to wonder what America would be like without a culture of entrepreneurial capitalism; you need only look at the most impoverished nations in the world.

That’s why the election of Muslim socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City should set off so many alarms. Mamdani — like all his ilk — has zero experience with or understanding of what it takes to start a business, to make it successful, to meet the needs of larger numbers of customers, clients, patrons and patients.

Those of us who understand what has made America free and prosperous must evangelize for entrepreneurship and small business; they are as fundamental to our foundation and freedom as the Constitution and Christianity. We must demand changes in our educational system and promote forms of government, society and culture that make it possible for innovative and solution-minded people to build and grow ventures.

The proof of the successes of America’s entrepreneurs is everywhere — even on an interstate highway in the middle of the night. If you don’t understand entrepreneurship, you don’t understand America. If enough Americans cease to understand and appreciate entrepreneurship, we will lose America.