"Stephen Moore raises a good point when he says "there is a fatal disregard for the heroes of the economy: the entrepreneur" ("Why Americans Hate Economics,” Aug. 18). But not everyone has disregarded the heroic entrepreneur. Candace Allen Smith, wife of Nobel prize winning economist Vernon Smith, and Dwight Lee of Southern Methodist University, published an article in 1996 in The Journal of Private Enterprise article called “The Entrepreneur as Hero.” Inventor and Physicist Elliot McGucken has held an annual "Heroes Journey Entrepreneurship" festival at Pepperdine University. He is currently working on a related book. Economist Walter Williams gave a talk at Hillsdale College in 2005 called “The Entrepreneur As American Hero.” Johan Norberg published an article called “Entrepreneurs Are the Heroes of the World,” in Cato’s Letter: A Quarterly Message on Liberty in 2007. I published an article in the business newsletter The New Leaders in 1992 on entrepreneurs as heroes using the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell. Campbell once said in a radio interview that entrepreneurs were the real heroes in our capitalist society. He even referred to the work of the hero in myths as one of "creation and destruction." This parallels Joseph Schumpeter's theory of "creative destruction.""See also my Who Says Entrepreneurs Are Heroes? (Remarks prepared for the first HERO'S JOURNEY ENTREPRENEURSHIP FESTIVAL, March 31st, 2007 at Pepperdine University)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Not everyone has disregarded the heroic entrepreneur
Below is a letter I sent to The Wall Street Journal which, unfortunately, did not get printed. It was in reference to an article by Stephen Moore called Why Americans Hate Economics.
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Cool work! You'll also love the words and videos here regarding Hero's Journey Mythology, business, and innovation:
ReplyDeletehttp://herosjourneyentrepreneurship.org/ :
The same classical values guiding the rising artistic renaissance will protect the artists' intellectual property. The immortal ideals which guide the story of blockbuster books and movies such asThe Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart,The Chronicles of Narnia, and Star Wars, are the very same ideals underlying the United States Constitution. These classic ideals--which pervade Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, and the Bible--are the source of both epic story and property rights, of law andbusiness, of academia and civilization.
It is great to witness classical ideals performed in Middle Earth, upon the Scottish Highlands, long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, and in Narnia, but too, such ideals must be perpetually performed in the contemporary context and living language.
Great comment. Hope everything is going well for you. Unfortunately they did not print my letter.
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