On Making the Future

Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurial, as differentiated from managerial or strategic, because they think effectually; they believe in a yet-to-be-made future that can substantially be shaped by human action; and they realize that to the extent that this human action can control the future, they need not expend energies trying to predict it. In fact, to the extent that the future is shaped by human action, it is not much use trying to predict it ? it is much more useful to understand and work with the people who are engaged in the decisions and actions that bring it into existence.

–from “What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial?” (http://www.effectuation.org/ftp/effectua.pdf) by Saras D. Sarasvathy, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, and author of Effectuation: Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise