Look up the terms “Entrepreneurship” and “Creative Destruction”, specifically as they relate to the writings of Joseph Schumpeter and Werner Sombart.

I don’t have nearly enough space here to recap the volume of writings I discovered on this subject, but one point in particular deserves discussion here: Economic and political theorist Joseph Schumpeter advanced two, nearly competing theories on the power of Unternehmergeist or the entrepreneur-spirit which drives forward innovation (a word he uses in a specific rather than general sense) within a culture or society.

These theories are often referred to as Mark I and Mark II. Mark I is intuitive and awfully satisfying, especially for you and me. Mark I postulates that the growth, the change and renewal of a society comes from people he calls “wild spirits”. You know, the mavericks, the wildcards, the entrepreneurs….us. Mark I also derives directly from his time in Germany and Austria.

Later he moved to America, and after some time here, he advanced Mark II. Mark II states that wild spirits are more like a lunatic fringe, that only large companies with big R&D budgets can afford to travel the hard, uphill road between invention and innovation (if you had done your homework, you would know how he contrasts those two words).

Where does this leave us? Perhaps nowhere. Perhaps the self-conflicting musings of yet another smart, dead Austrian mean very little in the face of your looming water bill and you growing need to find a new advertising venue. But perhaps by knowing whether you are inventing or innovating, you can better choose your publicity strategy. Perhaps by spending a few hours pouring over Schumpeter’s theories you will better understand the ‘why’s and ‘wherefore’s of your own business.

Nothing exists in a vacuum. You business or potential business will be a part of much more that a tight web of customers and clients and suppliers. Your business will be part of the driving apparatus of a worldwide society. The thought is profound, but neither you nor I are the first to think it. Read and learn. Then answer the big questions for yourself.