We need to teach our children that BUSINESS PEOPLE ARE TRUE HEROES!
And, in the process, we have to remember that ourselves.
This is not a political argument, but a human one.
It is not a philosophical argument, but simply a truth that must be understood.
The ABSOLUTE TRUTH is that as a country, the USA has convoluted, contorted, degraded, and in so many ways destroyed the image of the “business person”.
It is not only unfair, but so very, very dangerous to our collective well being.
Now, at the top of our HERO list, I would put the men and women serving in our armed forces, who dedicate their time and their lives to ensuring our freedom.
Without them AND OUR FREEDOM, nothing else matters.
But second on the list, I would argue to the death, is the ENTREPRENUER.
Ask kids in school today about “business”, and most have a distorted view of their value in society. Businessmen are associated with greed. “Business” is associated with the “less complicated” degrees to pursue in college. Businessmen are the ones who are “TAKING” from the poor, pushing for keeping the minimum wage where it is. They are the ones who “don’t care about people”.
While I am making generalizations, there is a lot of truth to how business and business people are portrayed by teachers, the media, POLITICIANS and society overall.
Do you ever think about, “Where is value created? What is the truth of where value in our economies is born?”
It would be an interesting experiment to ask students that question.
I would assume you would get answers like, “The government makes the money. I’ve taken a field trip to the mint.”
Do kids today realize…
DO ADULTS TODAY REALIZE…
Entrepreneurs and business people are the CORE, the HEART, the ENGINE of value in our society?
Private and Public Business is the only “VALUE ADDED” category of our society! Now, I am sure many of you are rolling your eyes. Some of you may question how does this tie into harmony. And, some of you believe that I have become a right wing nut.
So, please don’t roll your eyes. This ties in every possible way into harmony. And, I believe neither the right nor the left embraces business and capitalism truly… we desperately need a third party (and it will take a lot more economic pain before the country and public is willing to consider and accept one, but the two we have are leading us into a real mess).
Back to business ;-)
Think about it. WHO GENERATES VALUE for the economy to grow?
Ultimately, the economy is money changing hands for goods and services. And, for whatever reason, we seem to live better and better lives decade after decade. (At least the opportunity is there for us to live better lives, have access to better health care, drive safer cars, have better communication, have more options on television, etc. etc. etc.
WHO GENERATEAS VALUE for our economy to EXIST?
BUSINESS PEOPLE
And, who CREATES BUSINESS? Entreprenueurs!
People who choose to take something and add value to it, and then sell that value to someone who needs or wants it… THAT IS BUSINESS.
And, then the rest of the economy RIDES THAT EFFORT!
The government taxes businesses so that it can FUND all of its “well intentioned operations”.
The government taxes people’s income so that it can FUND all of its “well intentioned operations.”
And, the government keeps getting BIGGER AND BIGGER, and taking a BIGGER AND BIGGER chunk of businesses so that it can keep growing and growing.
It is an uncontrollable beast that takes its own “food supply (i.e. money)” from value generating business OR just prints more (which isn’t good for the economy).
So, that is how the world works… but, what is so fundamentally unfair, is that the government then NOT ONLY puts in laws and regulations that are created without real understanding of how they make business creation more difficult.
And, then politicians spend so much time insulting and demonizing “businesses” as the greedy barbarians that they are trying to protect the poor from…
I know a lot of business people. Many are wealthy and many are not.
All are aware of the reality of their profession. If they make mistakes, jobs are lost, people can’t receive pay checks.
Business people do want to create value and create wealth for themselves…
JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!!
Does the person on welfare want to create wealth for themselves? SURE!
The difference with business people and particularly ENTREPRENUERS is that they actually DO! They take RISK. They take ACTION. And, as a result when their strategies succeed… they make a disproportionate amount of wealth… BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS THEY TOOK A DISPROPORTIONATE AMOUNT OF RISK.
I have the most sincere admiration for business people... from the Steve Jobs and the Michael Dells to the Shirl Grables, the Joe Francaviglias, the Luis Aspillagas, the Michael Logsdons, the Claude Limoges, the Brian LeGettes, the Stephen Candelmos, the Matt Turpins, the Chad Heisers, the Don Knoxs, the Mike Pearts, the Jodi Humes, and even my entreprenurial doc friends, like the Marc Hamburgers, the Sharon Silvermans, the Jane Chews... so many courageous, moral, caring, hard-working, risk taking people that I aspire to be like... and value deeply, and celebrate! So very many that I haven't named, and so many whose names I don't even know... the countless taxi drivers who buy a car and launch themselves in a new world... trying to add a little value, build a little wealth, educate their children so that they can do a little better than they did... so many great admirable people and stories... propelling business forward... YOU ARE ALL MY HEROES!
Now, there are also irresponsible and immoral business people who want to create wealth without creating value (think many examples on wall street). And, WHERE EXACTLY IS THE GOVERNMENT (i.e. SEC) IN KEEPING US SAFE FROM THE BERNIE MADOFFS of the world? WHERE EXACTLY IS THE GOVERNMENT IN HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE for manipulating laws and loopholes that the government itself creates?
Let’s just do a quick look around of all societies that have shunned or rejected the “business person”. Think about a little experiment the Soviet Union tried after World War II? Think about how well experiment went in the now free and business driven Russia? Think about North Korea? Think about Cuba?
Just like there are degrees of EVIL, there are degrees of CAPITALISM. At its purest, capitalism, is business people set free to create value WHILE RESPECTING INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS (i.e. US business in the 1950s and 60s)…. On the other end of the spectrum, is totalitarianism… (i.e. North Korea) And, in the middle, “socialist countries” like France and Greece and modern day USA, that are hurting constantly because the “WEIGHT” the government puts on businesses.”
The US GOVERNMENT is like an elephant standing on a runner asking him to run faster.
So, not ALL business people should be HEROES – True DAT! But as a category, we should hold business people up… we should teach our children to respect the massive role they play in the health and EXISTENCE of our society.
At the heart of our economy is the small business. (The very large businesses become monsters themselves and mate with the government for “protection”, and then you get the Exxons who become multi billion dollar profitable companies that pay little to no taxes… CRAZY! Monsters protect monsters… Disharmony begets disharmony.
AMERICA is run on small to mid size businesses. They are the ones creating value, innovating products and services, and making the world go round and round.
And, those small to mid size businesses are created on the backs, the dreams, and the bank accounts of everyday people who are willing to take risk… who are working to add value… to create a small SPARK in their community… and its all of those sparks that light the fire that burns still strong in the US despite all of the attempts by government to burn it out.
STOP DEMONIZING BUSINESSES… and start CELEBRATING THEM!
Ultimately, everything is PAID for by the economic expansion created by value added businesses… The half of the country who works for the government has their salaries paid for by the taxes from businesses and the income from the employees of business.
Now, many, many of the services provided by the government provide value to people’s lives, but they don’t ADD value to the economy – they TRANSFER value from the economy. That’s different. We need drivers licenses, we need SOME regulation. The government has a purpose – and it has many dedicated people working for it… but it SO VERY MUCH oversteps its mission and purpose…
OVER TIME the government, IF WE LET IT IN A FREE WORLD, becomes a self feeding monster.
That is why our armed forces are so vital. OUR FREEDOM IS THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO KEEP THE MONSTER TAME. OUR POWER TO VOTE OUT politicians who don’t respect our business base, who try to kill the golden goose that makes everything work. OR, the freedom to RUN for office.
But, as the country continues to degrade and discount business, OUR CULTURE becomes a culture that doesn’t value business… so more and more of the people that run for office run on platforms of “keeping business people in control…” Instead of keeping the uncontrollable beast of government in control.
You can’t give WEALTH to everyone.
Not everyone can have the same WEALTH…
Unless you want to live in a communist country…
And, we all know how that experiment went.
The truth is that wealth is created by creating value and taking risk to bring it to market. And, that is made possible by PEOPLE, business PEOPLE. And, everything else builds on that value and feeds on it.
If you hear or feel some disharmony in my words, its because I DO WISH when I get into it that we hadn’t drifted this far. I DO WISH that we valued businesses and made it easier for businesses to succeed instead of harder. (In my company, we compete against the government for people. The government lately is paying more and more, so not only do they tax our profit, and our income, but then they start giving it away at a faster rate than they collect it and compete against the people that are providing it.)
TRUTH is that is just NOT a sustainable formula, and the reality of that concerns me for the generations to come.
First, there is the veteran… WHO FIGHTS FOR OUR FREEDOM…
Then, there is the entrepreneur and the moral business person… WHO FIGHTS FOR OUR QUALITY OF LIFE…
That’s the truth… now… WHAT DO WE WANT to do with that next?
Help the USA value its business base… its business people...
It’s very much in your, and my, best interest!
Yours in capitalist harmony,
Nestor