How Entrepreneurs Promote Post-Disaster Community Rebound

Although it is commonplace to describe the entrepreneur as fearless or daring or a maverick, Schumpeter ([1942] 1976: 127) has described life in advanced commercial society as essentially “anti-heroic.” As Schumpeter (ibid.: 128) explains, “success in industry and commerce requires stamina, yet industrial and commercial activity is essentially unheroic in the knight’s sense—no flourishing of swords about it, not much physical prowess, no charge to gallop the armored horse into the enemy.” Additionally, while it is easy to think of starting a charity as generous or noble, it is more difficult to think of starting a charity as being akin to leading soldiers against the battlements. Admittedly, depending on the environment, espousing certain beliefs could be quite dangerous, but many ideological entrepreneurs face, at most, social sanction for their preaching. Despite our efforts to analogize entrepreneurial activities to actions on the battlefield, there are obvious differences between the entrepreneur and the soldier.