Leadership Series @ SIIB ( 12th September 2009 )

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what the root of money is? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
…
"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money--and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being--the self-made man--the American industrialist.
"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality. “


-Francisco’s Money speech ( http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826 ) “Atlas Shrugged”, Ayn Rand

“To make money” or to “to create wealth”, as the parlance goes; has been glorified, vilified and much debated since when time for a chat was at hand. The self-made woman will have at some point said that given a canvas she can do a better job , using gumption, guts and a business sense tingling she sets out on a road to create her own job.


The entrepreneur, more often than not, is not enamored of the wealth or riches which a successful entrepreneur entails: he climbs the mountain because it is there. He has an idea, an idea whose time has come and then to paraphrase what Paul Coelho would have said:”if the entrepreneur desires the idea to come to life, the entire universe conspires to get the enterprise up and running”.

Any successful economy has its share of legends: of women lionized because they set out on a path which many chose not to because it was tougher. Entrepreneurs change rules of game: they often set out to challenge the established business model itself. New upstarts and ambitious startups are what keep the wheels of innovation constantly turning.

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship is nurtured in a society which believes the better mousetrap is no less than a noble ideal : where failures in business are looked upon as a but an attempt to change the world which will have another go at.


Aby Johnson