When I was growing up in America I was taught not only by my parents but by my parents’ friends, other random adults, and my school teachers that being an individual was prized.
When I was shown examples of people, they were outliers. Leaders were different. They didn’t follow a tried and true path to get to where they were. They had to do something different. They weren’t drones.
When I caddied at the local country club, I noticed the members were all business owners, doctors, or lawyers.
Entrepreneurship was celebrated. I remember the first time I ever saw the word. A teacher wrote it on the chalkboard. I thought it was French.
The concepts and ideas behind the word “entrepreneurship” are not uniquely American, but America incorporated those concepts into its founding and development.
As a country, we did pretty well hewing to that ideal. As Americans, we have the highest standard of living in the world and we also have the most opportunity. It doesn’t matter where you came from.
In school, I learned that communism was a pretty bad way to organize a society and capitalism was the best. They aren’t equivalent. Capitalism prizes risk-taking and being different. Communism can only be put in place at the tip of a spear. One of my teachers had a quote by Churchill on his wall that couldn’t be put there today I assume.
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried.” In a similar fashion, capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others.”
Just so you know, America isn’t a democracy. It’s a democratic republic and there is a difference.
Capitalism might be messy but it works a helluva lot better than central planning. People interacting in their own self-interest raises all of us up. It’s hard to understand and doesn’t fit neatly in a course thesis.
Over the last half-century, those concepts have been under constant attack. It started after the Sixties hippies became ensconced in the educational hierarchy. All of a sudden you had to conform. Schools didn’t teach objectivity and individuality, they indoctrinated. The Hippies of the 60s preached tolerance and democracy but they are anything but that. Turns out “turning on” and “free love” come with a lot of costs.
I was reminded of that several times this week when:
Elon Musk bought Twitter. The backlash and comments unfortunately didn’t surprise me but in the context of the first principles of America, they are astounding.
This article in the WSJ
This book review. Jason Reilly wrote a book about Economist Thomas Sowell. Mr. Sowell was born poor, and black in North Carolina. The NAACP “compared him to the “house n*****s” of the plantation era.”
Allan Blinder stating he waited for capitalism to fix supply chains but it didn’t.
Sowell broke so many molds and conventions no one knew what to do with him.
Entrepreneurs break molds all the time. I am watching the Hulu series on Theranos right now with my wife. Tim Draper gets a lot of flack for investing in Theranos. But, that’s what investors do at seed. They take risks on companies that will break molds.
The fraud that was perpetrated at Theranos is unfortunate and sad. In the second episode, if she didn’t cheat in front of Larry Ellison the company would have ended. Original investors like Draper would have lost everything and we all would have moved on.
One thing I notice is cities getting all excited because the tech industry has landed in their town. Usually, it’s a satellite office of Facebook or Google or some big corporation like that. It is no different than some other Fortune 500 company opening an office. Guess what, Big Tech companies are corporations staffed by drones just like the boring mundane businesses that aren’t Big Tech. Yes, nice they are in your city but they aren’t “of” your city and will leave when it’s better for the corporation to leave.
If you see an industry vertical that is dominated by a few companies you will also see that industry littered with “experts” and “academics” that know everything there is to know about that industry.
Entrepreneurs don’t care and they blow everything up defying the experts and academics and surprising the companies.
That’s also true in “industries” like politics. It’s why people coming in from the outside that “don’t know how to play the game” like Trump are so fearful for established politicos.
Musk has broken the mold many times. Paypal was a new way to transfer money. Tesla revolutionized the auto industry and would do more if regulations didn’t limit him. SpaceX revolutionized the space industry. I am okay to let him try and revolutionize social media.
For people graduating from college this year, I have this advice. Don’t worry about satisfying your dreams. Don’t worry about working to satisfy someone else’s desires. Work hard at whatever you do and create value for other people.
You will see how hard it is to create value for people. It’s not easy but if you do you will rise and see the reward from doing it. You cannot create value without working hard and you can’t work hard if you don’t show up.
Especially work hard. Go into the office. Show up. I was watching an interview with basketball players Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Bird said in the summer he’d shoot at least 700 shots a day. He was already the MVP of the league and top of his game. As he was walking off the court, he was worried that Magic Johnson was probably still working out so he’d go back out on the court and shoot 100 more.
People at the top work hard, and they don’t waste time.
I’d make this bet. In five years’ time, Twitter will be worth at least 3x what it’s worth today if Musk provides the vision and he gets the right executive team to execute it. He will make mistakes-everyone does. But big deal. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison made mistakes and so did Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
Unfortunately, the current generation that makes up the bulk of the workforce is more of a “conformist generation” or “forced conformist generation”, or an “if you don’t conform we will make you pay generation”. They don’t like to see a person in a colorful suit when they are all wearing grey flannel.
This was a great piece. For an essay titled “Why is America so Toxic?” it was not all dower and sad but hit on some positive notes, hopeful ideas. When I read something like this, it leaves me feeling realistically optimistic and so your essay made my day. So, on behalf of my day, and myself, thank you.
"Work Hard". That's it really.
Also, Tom Sowell. A National Treasure.