Forbes, who supports the definition of an entrepreneur as “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk,” suggests that the “economy needs all kinds of entrepreneurs.” (14) 

According to the Harvard Business Review, there is also a “myth of the intrapreneur,” a term coined in the 1980s, meaning “entrepreneurial creativity and innovation within large, established organizations.” (15)

To me, this means as an entrepreneur you can dilute the economy and participate in local or international markets directly, and as an intrapreneur you can influence, innovate and bring institutional change from within. Either way, as a participant in our collective barter system receiving money, you have an important contribution to make.

The documentary “Generation Startup” gives “an exhilarating and uplifting look at entrepreneurship,” according to Ariana Huffington, winking at what many of the students at SriSri University are experiencing with the ideas making there way to India’s annual Startup Week, and helping to earn national titles such as “Best Innovative University.” (16) The Financial Times suggests that “a third of startups aim for social good.” (17) 

All of these initiatives encourage a brighter future since “social entrepreneurship has taken off in the last two decades as millennials have ascended to leadership roles in the economy” with the millennial generation representing the biggest ever in the United States (around 30 percent of the population), with “hundreds of billions in buying power.” The question is can “social entrepreneurship generate sufficient economic impact to ensure its survival?” (18)

Now that solutions exist to help heal and harmonize our collective economies, when it comes to longevity, trade, and the barter system, equally important is the aspect of communication; making sure the masses connect with these alternatives, and participate in their impact. However, much like the economy, the media and marketing have not always been received as positive and promising: “social entrepreneurs tend to view marketers as slimy, sleazy liars. Why do intelligent people, wanting to use their intelligence to solve the world’s social problems, tend to shun marketing?” (19)