If you have read part one of this article, you know my thesis that the real avenue to create change in the world for the average person is through the world of business, rather than political activism.

In this chapter, I will explain exactly how one might use the world of business and the dynamic and powerful engine of capitalism to create the sort of permanent change which really makes a difference : creating a brand new viable business model.

As with all its open secrets, the business world talks a lot about business plans and business models and makes them sound like obscure, stuffy, dull things that nobody with the smallest spark of true wit or originality could possibly understand. But at the most basic level, a business model is simply an idea for a business, developed to the point of figuring out how to make the whole thing turn a profit, or at least break even. As a concept, that’s simple enough. As a reality, of course, it’s fairly complex.

But the potential rewards in terms of change are astounding. Think of how much power Wal-Mart exerts over the marketplace. If Wal-Mart decides that it wants healthier food choices at its price point from wholesalers across the board, the winners will be those who can change their practices and get behind what Wal-Mart wants the fastest and the best. Wal-Mart, as an entity, exerts massive influence in the global marketplace. What it likes, happens. What it doesn’t like, goes away. The decisions of Wal-Mart can make or break the fate of nations, let alone thousands of businesses large and small.

Now imagine that kind of power and influence applied directly to making the world a better place.

And it all started because one man, Sam Walton. had an idea for a different kind of store, one which kept prices low all the time instead of having bogus ‘sales’ which claim to be saving you money without ever telling you exactly how. A store where they went out of their way to be a little friendlier, a little nicer, a little more accessible. A store that anyone of any background or income could feel at home in. In other words, Wal-Mart.

And he took that idea, turned it into a business and then into a business model and made them work, and despite the mutations that have happened to it since then, it’s still the most massive retail presence in the world today, and it all started with an idea for a new business model.

Look at your average strip mall, and you will see, right before your eyes, an excellent lesson in the power of successful business models that have changed modern life and how it is lived. And remember that it’s not just the chains that change things, it’s the idea for business.

Every store in that strip mall represents a successful business model. It’s easy to forget this, because we take the existence of all the usual types of businesses for granted, and it’s hard to remember that at one point, they just plain did not exist. But every one of them is a modern invention, and every one of them started, at one point, as just an idea in someone’s head.

Take, for example, the pizza place. It seems beyond obvious now that people love pizza and therefore there is a huge market for pizza, and a business selling pizza is a good idea. But at one point, pizza was foreign food, ethnic cuisine, along with the rest of Italian cuisine, and a business selling pizza must have seemed like as strange an idea to the people of that time as having a store that sold nothing but some obscure African Bushman delicacy would seem to us now.

But someone started a pizza place anyhow, and people liked it, a few at first and then more over time, until today, when pizza and Italian food are so ubiquitous and so entirely absorbed into the culture that we barely even think of them as ethnic cuisine any more, and you can get a pizza anywhere, at any time.

All because someone thought “This stuff is great! I bet other people would love it!”, and turned that idea into a business model that worked.

Or take your average dry cleaning outlet. We taken the availability of this type of service as a no-brainer fact of life, but at one point, there was no such thing. Someone invented the process, came up with a business model for the dry cleaning store, and over time, this made all kinds of clothing options more affordable for millions of people that had never been possible (or affordable) before.

And in the world of business, the key is profitability. A lot of well-meaning liberal business ventures fail because they treat profit like a dirty word, try to run their business by their ideology, or otherwise try to be in business without becoming businesspeople. But a business model is like a living creature, and profit is what keeps it alive and thriving. If a business is profitable, it can expand. If it can expand, it can grow till it becomes two identical businesses on the same business model… like capitalist mitosis. And if those businesses remain profitable, the business modem becomes a chain, the chain inspires competitors, the competitors help spur innovation and suddenly, the business idea is an industry. The success attracts more capital, and the business model spreads, and over the years, becomes a trillion dollar industry that is firmly entrenched in the very fabric of pop culture and our daily lives.

And it all starts with someone’s idea for a business that just might work.