The speculative aspect of entrepreneurship has been emphasized by Ludwig von Mises in his great book, Human Action. One of the neglected philosophical aspects of economics has been the acknowledgment and understanding of the principle which the philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce, called Tychism. The very smallest particles of the universe exhibit a random performance which can be actuarily described for purposes of rough prediction, but cannot be assumed to exhibit the kind of absolute causation that made many of the laws of science and, to a lesser extent, the social sciences seem capable of flawless prediction. The economic determinism of Karl Marx must go the way of all absolute determinism. She is, indeed, the goddess of the entrepreneur.
Some people have native capacity to take risks.
They are optimists who see in every patch of sand a potential garden, in every man a potential worker, in every problem a possible profit. These are people who take the plunge to create new enterprises, build new businesses, revitalize old ones. I shall, however, outline a few characteristics of the numerous entrepreneurs who are building America out of the ruin of some of our traditional beleaguered and subsidized industries. Kirzner correctly identifies alertness to new opportunity as the principal factor in entrepreneurship. The person who fails to see an opportunity is disqualified.