Entrepreneurship is a calling or vocation. It is, though, quite different from management. All aspects of business, whether one is in management, employment or an investor should be conducted ethically, but the characteristics and virtues demanded of entrepreneurs are quite specific – and rarely discussed.
Entrepreneurship requires alertness to opportunities, but it also involves a leap in the dark: a leap into the genuinely unknowable. Entrepreneurship also often involves radical uncertainty where, however much analysis we do, we cannot predict the outcome – or even quantify the risks that are faced.
Jack Cohen, the founder of Tesco, started as a market stallholder and even invested his wedding present in his then-micro business. He was an entrepreneur, and his actions gave rise to huge consequences that he could not have predicted.
Entrepreneurs also have to be prepared for failure: most businesses do fail. This requires a certain strength of character and detachment from material things. As the economists Alchian and Allen note:
Fortune does not hand down information and guidance to discover improved techniques of production and distribution of better products. It’s obtained by investing in risky exploration and experimentation with one’s own wealth. Some experiments fail, perhaps most fail. The failures disappear with little publicity.
Entrepreneurs, therefore, need a certain detachment from material things if they are going to take risks. Entrepreneurs could choose to do nothing, and many could choose not to start a new venture whilst carrying on living a life of considerable material comfort. The act of entrepreneurship requires people to move away from the familiar and risk their secure life and their material comforts. Thomas Aquinas comments that people would not carry out what he describes as works of magnificence (which could include, but is certainly not limited to, establishing a business) if they had not moderated their love for money. Otherwise, they would not have undertaken the financial risk – they would just have accumulated interest on their fortune.
The first Pope to use the word ‘entrepreneur’ in a public statement was probably Pope Pius XII. He did not write a social encyclical, but he produced broadcasts and speeches which demonstrated an advanced understanding of economics, and which were often related to business practice, including entrepreneurship. For example, he said in an address to the First National Congress of Small Industry in January 1956: ‘Among the motives that justified the holding of your convention, you have given the first place to “a vindication of the indispensable functions of the private entrepreneur”.’
And, in an address to the Third International Congress on the Distribution of Food Products in June of the same year, he noted some of the attributes and virtues that entrepreneurs needed: ‘they should rid themselves of prejudices that hinder the establishment of more economical methods and be open-minded with a taste for the calculated risk.’
As well as mentioning the characteristics of entrepreneurs, as discussed above, Pope Pius XII also mentioned, in his address to the Third International Congress on the Distribution of Food Products in June 1956, some of the virtues that entrepreneurs needed:
Men must [have]…solicitude for the common good, even if individual interests must suffer a little at first, and perfect honesty: all these qualities of a good merchant have now, more than ever, a rightful claim on you, and are clearly prime factors of success.
Adam Smith made a similar point, in fact. You may be able to make some quick money if you are dishonest. But, in general, if you are to build a lasting business, you need to develop trusted relationships with employees, suppliers, financiers, and so on.
Pope John Paul II certainly had a good understanding of the distinct role of the entrepreneur. In his encyclical, Centesimus annus, he wrote about entrepreneurship and the values and virtues of the entrepreneur. He mentioned the need for co-operation; a common goal; the need to organise properly; the willingness to take risks; discipline; diligence; industriousness; prudence in ensuring that the risks are reasonable; reliability and fidelity in personal relationships; courage in taking difficult decisions.
The Vatican document ‘The Vocation of the Business Leader’ goes further and, quoting Pope Pius XI’s social encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno, it is argued that an entrepreneur’s first aim should be to produce a good product or service and only secondly consider gain: the entrepreneur should produce true goods by good means (44).
We can go still further than this. The role of the entrepreneur is to produce goods or services by good means whilst making a return for the investors – which will include the entrepreneur himself.
If the entrepreneur does not make a return, he is running a charity, not a business. It is not intrinsically problematic for a business to make a return – after all, the profits from businesses pay pensions, payouts on insurance policies, allow people to save, and so on. But a business should make a profit through moral means.
Radich (2024), in his article, ‘Toward a Thomistic Account of the Virtues of the Entrepreneur: Moral, Intellectual, and Theological Strengths for Flourishing’, Journal of Markets and Morality 27(1) has, perhaps, the most comprehensive account of the virtues of the entrepreneur. He breaks down the cardinal virtues into constituent parts. He suggests that particular aspects of prudence are important for the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need docility (the ability to learn from others, which helps them make fewer mistakes and make more rapid judgements); they need providentia, by which the entrepreneur can see ahead; and they need circumspection, which requires them to be attentive to their surroundings.
These are all sub virtues of the virtue of prudence, and they can easily be related to the economic analysis above which emphasised the importance of, for example, alertness and being able to envisage the future as shaped by entrepreneurial activity.
The sub virtues of the virtue of fortitude involve overcoming challenges through effort and by taking financial risks in order to do great things.
Temperance is also important. Entrepreneurs may come across challenges that might endure over long periods of time, so patience is necessary. Entrepreneurs are not rash gamblers. If they are to be successful, they must restrain their impulses.
Interestingly, Radich also cites a study by researchers at Baylor university which suggested that entrepreneurs prayed more than the average. Radich speculated that this might be because they are aware of their dependence on others and, hence, upon the divine, and also that they are aware of their inability to control the circumstances that surround them.
Indeed, Pope Francis referenced the virtue of courage in entrepreneurship in an address at an audience for the Italian Family Business Association:
In your case, you are characterized by the delicate balance between family and work, which is expressed in entrepreneurial courage and responsibility. It is good, it is constructive when courage and responsibility go together. Action that comes from the heart is bold, it does not retreat into itself, but knows how to look far ahead; and responsibility, then, is the secret of business….
Indeed, there was a ‘Jubilee for Entrepreneurs’ in the Catholic Church’s 2025 jubilee year.
The concept of entrepreneurship – or certainly, its attributes – should not be thought of as being limited to the field of business. The characteristics of entrepreneurship apply in many other human activities. For example, we could imagine doing the following in a Church, civil society or public service context:
- Setting up a youth group
- Establishing a new business school within a Christian university
- Launching a mission team to try to promote wider practice of the faith in an area where there are few practising Christians
All these require the characteristics of entrepreneurs that we have described above such as:
- Alertness to opportunities
- Courage in the face of apparent failure
- Patience as results might only arise slowly
- Good personal qualities, trustworthiness etc.
- Taking calculated risks without being reckless
- Being able to conceptualise how the venture will change things if successful
This link between entrepreneurship and the mission of the Church is part of a longer research project that I am pursuing with CEME over the coming months.
