Do you stand to lose your own money, or someone else’s?
In my experience, you cross more t’s and dot more i’s when your ass is on the line with someone else’s money. When it’s your own, you have more freedom to play in the gray areas.

BTW, Paul, which son are you?

The main differences here, it seems to me, are twofold. First, that China’s emergence has led to this process unfolding at dramatic speed over the past two decades. Second, that China’s opaque regulatory apparatus, combined with the government’s explicit power over over business, can make the process seem quite arbitrary and dangerous. (Matters here often being settled by fiat rather than tested in court as they would be in the US.)

But Chinese entrepreneurs aren’t doing anything differently from entrepreneurs in new industries elsewhere in terms of exploiting opportunities and risking that their models would survive the emergence of regulation. The American tech industry provides parallels. Napster was an entrepreneurial test case. The difference is that its fate was settled through commercial litigation rather than government intervention. Similarly, YouTube and the American video sharing sites are still learning what they can get away with.

i like your metaphor of the prodigal son. Here are some more hackneyed metaphors which seem apt as well.

better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission or better to die like a lion than to live like a sheep.