Two New Books Suggest That Entrepreneurs Are Heroes

One is Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Here is a quote from Matt Ridley's review in The Wall Street Journal:

"If trial and error is creative, then we should treat ruined entrepreneurs with the reverence that we reserve for fallen soldiers, Mr. Taleb thinks."

Then there was a review in The Wall Street Journal of The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture: Liberty vs. Authority in American Film and TV by Paul A. Cantor. Here is an excerpt:

"Mr. Cantor believes Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" provides as clean a rejection of crony capitalism as exists in entertainment. The film's climax takes place during a Senate hearing at which Howard Hughes battles a senator attempting to help a campaign donor form an airline monopoly. This turns Hollywood stereotypes on their head: The entrepreneur is the hero and regulating busybodies in the pocket of a competitor are the villains."

Click here to read that review

Taleb has proposed a National Entrepreneur Day. Here is the post from "The Black Swan Report"

"“We need to respect failed entrepreneurs,” he tells Fast Company. “This would make more people take risks and generate growth.” At the end of the fourth chapter of the book, he proposes a National Entrepreneur Day, one furnished with this message:

“Most of you will fail, disrespected, impoverished, but we are grateful for the risks you are taking and the sacrifices you are making for the sake of the economic growth of the planet and pulling others out of poverty. You our the source of our antifragility. Our nation thanks you.”

Beyond rippling with Taleb’s signature bombast, the quote makes a fair point, one that he rephrases elsewhere in the book: that just as there’s no such thing as a failed soldier (so long as he fights with courage), there’s no such thing as a failed entrepreneur, even if the company goes belly up."

But it looks like there already is, or has been, one. Click here to learn about it. It was November 16, 2012.