"How can it be" she asked. "My business was thriving, we were gaining market share, new products were in development and then it all stopped." Entrepreneurs around the globe have struggled to answer such questions. What exactly caused the meltdown? Can we honestly pin it on a single event or commodity? I don't think so.
What we are experiencing is just how small and connected our world really is. Credit default swaps in New York can destroy over exuberant investors in Peru and Latvia and still have energy to crush Iceland as an encore. Financial markets, like others, require stability and some degree of certainty. Painful as the struggle we now endure is, its not all bad. There is a process of renewal that comes only through the pain of disruption.
Creative destruction as used by, the 20th century economist, Joseph Schumpeter is a cycle of constant change and renewal. Like a wildfire cleansing a forest; only the strongest survive and continue on. The ashes become the fuel that feeds new growth. Schumpeter's central tenant was, 'Without entrepreneurs we lack innovation and are stuck in a circular cycle.' Schumpeter's warning to humanity was to be aware that the intellectuals, (as a Harvard Professor he qualified for that group), would destroy capitalism by turning public opinion against it. This would essentially become the path to a failed European like economy.
His cure, less government, less regulation, freedom in the markets to experiment with new innovations and a freedom of choice by consumers...oh wait...that's capitalism. Innovation and entrepreneurship are our allies, freedom must be a requirement. Let's stop worrying about the political blame game and start forging ahead.
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