Entrepreneurs are in a persistent battle with predicting possible future markets to come from their innovative ideas. Many times their new solutions to problems are looked at as strange or unusual to the average consumer’s eye. Change can be seen as an intimidating factor, especially once someone becomes comfortable with the way that something is. These entrepreneurial leaps can potentially lead to greater satisfaction and a better off exchange for the people of the public. The Fountainhead illustrates that originality and out of the box thinking can lead to a new and very better market. This of course will most likely come with trials and tribulations for it is hard to convince investors to support something so avant garde such as modern architecture. However, high risk typically brings high reward in these scenarios.
The problem with markets today is that they have grown to have incredibly competitive competition. You have your big businesses that do not necessarily operate a monopoly, but they can make it difficult for any other small up start ups to grow and expand in early stages. You also have to consider the size of the market and if it is growing in local competition. Finally, you have to acknowledge the future of the market before your production begins. You will have to make the assessments off of the present day because the market will always be changing for the worse or for the better. The market will never eventually be labeled as “perfect” unless we are forced to communism and that will only be the opinion of the government. Innovation is a key factor in why the market can never become perfect. The main character Howard Roark was an out of the box/innovative architect that produced modern buildings unlike anything seen in New York City before. His work was initially shunned and was even spoken about in a local newspaper called “The Banner”. They eventually had an entire campaign to embrace what Howard was doing was wrongful. This abruptly ended Mr. Roark’s career temporarily. This happened relatively early in the movie and shows the destructive power of the media that can eventually change the ideas of the public. Humans naturally tend to resist change and it is a response embedded within us. It is however our jobs as entrepreneurs to initiate that change for the greater good.
Howard had few supporters through this business adventure early on. The main one being Dominique who fell deeply in love with Howards work right before him. This is someone who appreciated the field of work and also saw the potential for it to become its own market in the architecture business. This was at first the only person on the film who could even imagine something like this working out. This can be a common case for beginner entrepreneurs who are trying something new. Even all the way back to our first movie Joy and her trying to sell her product to the consumer/investor’s naked eye. Entrepreneurship is not only about creating the value, but it is also about showing and proving the value to consumers in the marketplace. Howard Roark was a very particular man with his line of work. He believed in the individuality of one’s work and art. He would not settle with a popular style or something that people are used to already because it showed no originality. He wanted to create something unlike the rest of the competition that grabs the individual's attention. That is a statement that can commonly be used in entrepreneurial start ups.
Mr. Roark gives a very inspirational speech at the climax of the movie to defend himself and his morals as not only an architect but as a human. He tells a story about how the first man created fire and probably died because of it, but he left a gift to his brothers of how to make fire and eventually lifted darkness. This is a metaphor of how entrepreneurial innovation can seem destructive but can cause a greater good. The great creators of our time had to stand alone against the men of their time armed with nothing but a vision.
