Conclusion

Especially when it is guided by that rare combination of imagination, energy, and shrewdness, the entrepreneurial impulse can be the forerunner of momentous transformation, an instigator of significant changes that extend well beyond the realm of industry. As tantalizing as space tourism seems from a modern-day perspective, many of the entrepreneurs highlighted in the earlier chapters of this book were involved in enterprises that, for their respective eras, were just as radically innovative and transformational as the work of Musk, Bezos, and company....

Flying Money and Capitalist Monks

By the Medieval Era, the Far East had not only caught up with Christian and Islamic civilization but, at least in commercial terms, had surpassed both. From the invention of fiduciary (or paper) money to sophisticated forms of urban development and labor specialization, Chinese entrepreneurs had transformed their society. The chapter describes how these entrepreneurs, some of whom were Buddhist monks, shaped and distinguished China during the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The Pirates of Phoenicia

Roughly two thousand years later, a tribe of “middlemen and merchants” transformed a small strip of land in modern-day Lebanon into the hub of intercontinental trade. Considered one of the ancient world’s most entrepreneurial and inventive cultures, the merchant-sailors of Phoenicia connected Africa, Europe, and Asia Minor into a network of trade so vast and profitable that their success was marveled at by Ezekiel and other authors of the Old Testament. The chapter also highlights more recent discoveries pertaining to this vanished civilization of seaborne merchants, such as its conversion of a sparsely populated Sicilian island into the site of a thriving wine-making and trading industry.

Flattening the World and Colonizing Space

Thomas Friedman’s 2005 bestseller The World is Flat described how a number of momentous technological and geopolitical developments converged to “flatten” the world. According to Friedman, this analogy represents how these changes have helped level the economic playing field, enabling remote and economically stagnant regions of the world to participate more equally in an interconnected global economy. As this chapter explains, although this “flattening” was instigated by American entrepreneurs eager for quicker access to foreign markets and labor, it has since accelerated through the efforts of a widening circle of entrepreneurs throughout the developing world. Rising living standards in several sub-Saharan African countries, for example, are a direct consequence of these entrepreneurial efforts, as are less positive changes in other regions. Beyond the current transformation of our own planet, the chapter also describes how, through the nascent space tourism industry, modern entrepreneurs may be leading humanity towards our most significant transformation yet.

Captains of the Revolution

The Industrial Revolution that began in 18th-century Britain would, in fairly short order, transform Western Europe, North America, and other regions of the world irreversibly. This momentous change would compel government, church, and other institutions to make unprecedented and often reluctant adjustments to the social structure. These entities were reacting to a revolution but who actually instigated it? Savvy and inventive British entrepreneurs did—the “captains” of new industries. Many of these remarkable figures and their often unintended impact on the world around them are discussed in this chapter.

“One Shekel of Your Private Silver”

What role did the entrepreneur play in shaping Ancient Mesopotamia, the “cradle of civilization”? This chapter demonstrates how the entrepreneurial drive transformed this pagan Middle Eastern society. Most relevantly, it helped spur Mesopotamia’s transition from an agrarian Bronze Age economy to a bustling hub of urban commerce, now a defining characteristic of Western Civilization. It will also highlight how this transformation spurred similar development throughout the then-known world.

Introduction

In 1985, Peter Drucker, the late management expert, defined entrepreneurship as “the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth,”1 among the most specific and meaningful definitions of the term. More literally, the words “entrepreneurship” and “enterprise” both derive from the Old French word for “an undertaking,” ...

The Land of (Entrepreneurial) Opportunity

From Cornelius Vanderbilt to Henry Ford and all the way to Bill Gates, America's history since her independence is replete with astonishing entrepreneurs who changed not only U.S. society but the entire world in profound and irreversible ways. The chapter highlights some of history’s most noteworthy American entrepreneurs, some of whom, like the slave turned inventor-entrepreneur Andrew Beard, are not well-known by the modern business reader. In this manner, the chapter illustrates how, to a great extent, America been molded by entrepreneurship and its attendant marvels and perils.

Western Europe and a “New World” of Profit

The extraordinary impact of the heyday of European colonialism (16th to 19th centuries) is unquestionable: Of the four continents that were relatively unknown to the West prior to colonialism, three—Australia, North America, and South America—were entirely transformed in the image of their colonizers. As this chapter demonstrates, not only were European entrepreneurs the primary beneficiaries of colonialism but, in many vital respects, their countries’ settlement of “new” territories would not have been possible without entrepreneurial labor and capital.

An Enterprising Faith

It is common knowledge that, as Europe slid into its Dark Ages, the Islamic world expanded rapidly and enjoyed several centuries of military, commercial, and intellectual dominance. However, the central role of entrepreneurship in not only the commercial but the territorial expansion of this new civilization is an overlooked but fascinating dimension of this historical period. Such phenomena as the slave trade and the Arab commercialization of East African coffee are examined as examples of the entrepreneurial vigor of Islamic civilization during its expansionary heyday.