Unleashing the idea virus

Imagine for a second that you’re at your business school reunion, trading lies and bragging about how successful you are and/or are about to become. Frank the jock talks about the dotcom company he just started.

Suzie the exbanker is now focusing her energy on rebuilding Eastern Europe. And then the group looks at you. With a wry look of amusement, you answer:
    
“Well, in the future the really big money is in owning a farm, maybe a small one. I intend to invest in a tractor of course, and expect that in just a few years my husband and I can cash out and buy ourselves a nice little brownstone in the city.” Ludicrous, no? While owning a farm may bring tremendous lifestyle benefits, it hasn't been a ticket to wealth for, say, 200 years.
    
What about owning a factory then? Perhaps the road to riches in the new economy would be to buy yourself a hot stamping press and start turning out steel widgets ...

Most of us can agree that the big money went out of owning a factory about 30 years ago. When you've got high fixed costs and you're competing against other folks who also know how to produce both quantity and quality, unseemly profits fly right out the window.
    
Alas, nobody has a clue how to build a farm for ideas, or even a factory for ideas... Even though we're clueless about how to best organise the production of ideas, one thing is clear: if you can get people to accept and embrace and adore and cherish your ideas, you win. You win financially, you gain power and you change the world in which we live.