A section of the Audience at the begining of the screening

'The Call of the Entrepreneur' interviews three entrepreneurs – a dairy farmer in Virginia, a merchant banker in New York and a Hong Kong media magnate born in China in 1948, a year before the communist takeover.

The interviews are interspersed with commentary of scholars in entrepreneurship such as Michael Novak of America Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Rev (Fr) Robert Sirico, the author of 'The Entrepreneurial Vocation'. The film strives to remove the general perception the world has about entrepreneurs, as greedy or altruistic, vicious or virtuous.

It also brings out some of the characteristics of entrepreneurs such as persistence, focus and vision. Entrepreneurs are persevering in pursuing their goals. They focus on what the market wants and satisfy the market. They are able to do this because they see things others don't.

The film departs from the classical Adam Smith portrayal of entrepreneurs as people who are motivated solely by self-interest. Entrepreneurs can be motivated by common good. Entrepreneurs create wealth. Money is just a representation of that wealth, the merchant banker argues.

It also brings out the distinction between entrepreneurs and rent-seekers and debunks the popular portrayal of business as a zero-sum game and argues that is not how wealth is created.

Entrepreneurs take risks. To minimize risk, they gather as much information as possible. Still they risk a great deal. Institutions like banks and insurance aid entrepreneurship by diversify risk by spreading it among many people.

Flexibility and adaptability are other features that an entrepreneur should have. This comes out very clearly especially in the case of the Hong Kong media magnate. The documentary also touches on the issue of religion and enterprise and argues that entrepreneurs are co-creators with God but they create at a much lower level.

The documentary is gripping especially for people with an interest in ideas. It is done simply yet it conveys deep ideas. It is gripping. One needs to watch it to marvel at how the pieces fall into place. But for some reason all the protagonists are male.

The Acton institute is one of the leading think tanks in the US and are better known for seeking to articulate a vision of society that is both free and virtuous, the end of which is human flourishing. To clarify this relationship, the institute holds seminars and publishes various books, monographs, periodicals, and articles.

See: www.acton.org