Ayn Rand: What kind of people can create wealth?

Ayn Rand: What kind of people can create wealth?

Introduction:

The essential feature of wealth creators is independent judgment.

The essential feature of wealth owners is their social dependence.

The wealth creator is an inventor and innovator, and the most obvious missing quality in his character is obedience.

Greenspan: The real wealth creator is about 5% of Wall Street. In industry, it is about 15%.

Wealth owners show off their wealth in vulgar ways, eager for "prestige" and attention.

Suppose you observe the college history of two young people and are asked to judge which of them will make a fortune on graduation day. Let's call them Smith and Jones. Both of them are smart and ambitious, and come from the same moderate middle-level background. However, there are significant differences between them.

Smith takes an active part in social activities and is very popular. He is a member of many campus groups, usually a leader. Jones is calm and reserved; He doesn't participate in group activities; He is usually noticed, but he is neither liked nor hated; Someone resented him for no reason.

Smith has a wide range of interests and can always find more than one job. Jones chose only one job-doing a special task or taking courses other than college courses-and he devoted all his spare time to it.

Smith can easily adapt himself to others, but he finds it more difficult to adapt himself to the changing environment. Jones can adapt himself to the environment, but he never gives in when getting along with others.

Smith did well in school. Jones's grades are very unstable: he got "A+" in some courses and "C" in others.

Smith's image in people's minds is full of sunshine, lively and happy. Jones's image is serious. However, some rare and short-lived signs seem to indicate that their roles have been reversed in their hidden inner world: Jones is calm and lively, while Smith is driven by some terrible and indescribable fear.

Who will you choose as the rich man in the future?

If you agree with the current popular view, you will choose Smith-you made a mistake. Jones is a model of wealth creator, while Smith is easy to copy. He never makes money, though he may be rich. In order to describe him accurately, we call him "the owner of wealth".

Explorers looking for gold mines all know that there is a mineral that deceives ignorant people because of its attractive luster: they call it chalcopyrite. There are the same differences between the real creators of wealth and the false creators, but the mineralogist of human soul has not learned to distinguish them.

Most people put all the rich people together and form the same category. They refuse to consider the essential issues: the source of wealth and the way to get it.

Money is a tool of exchange; As long as it can be exchanged for material products and services, it represents wealth. Wealth will not grow naturally; It must have been created by people. Nature only provides us with raw materials, but it is human wisdom that must find out how to use the knowledge of raw materials. It is human thinking and labor that turn raw materials into food, clothes, shelter or TV sets-into all products that people need for survival, comfort and happiness.

Behind every step of man's long journey from cave to new york, there is a man who successfully walked out of that step for the first time-he discovered how to make a fire, how to make wheels, airplanes and electric lights.

When people refuse to consider the source of wealth, they refuse to admit the fact that wealth is the product of human wisdom and creativity. Wealth is almost completely equivalent to art, science, philosophy or any other human value.

The creator of wealth is the discoverer, who turns his discoveries into material products. In an industrial society with complicated division of labor, it may be a partnership between one person or two people: scientists, who have discovered new knowledge; Industrialists (that is, businessmen) have discovered how to use this knowledge and how to integrate material resources and manpower into enterprises to produce products suitable for sale.

Wealth owners are completely different types of people. In essence, he is not creative-his fundamental purpose is to get a wealth created by others and gained by himself for nothing. He sought to become rich, but not by conquering nature, but by manipulating people; Not through intellectual efforts, but through social strategies. He doesn't produce, he redistributes: he just transfers the existing wealth from the owner's pocket to his own pocket.

The possessor of wealth may become a politician-or a businessman who "seeks shortcuts"-or a destructive product of "mixed economy": businessmen get rich through government favors, such as privileges, subsidies or concessions; In other words, they become rich through legal power.

In the current economic situation, it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between wealth creators and wealth owners because the mixture of free enterprise and government control is in disorder. If every business is entangled in government rules, the line between creating wealth and getting something for nothing will become blurred. Real wealth creators are forced to turn to the government for help-sometimes, some wealth holders are forced to perform some production tasks just for their "public image". However, if people observe a person's activities for a period of time, they can still see that his success is essentially due to his productive capacity or political power.

No single external feature can be used as a reliable indicator of the quality of wealth creation. The quality of Smith and Jones may change. But the final net weight of its quality will always sum up the same points: the essential feature of wealth creators is independent judgment; The essential feature of wealth owners is their social dependence.

A person with independent judgment is an extremely conceited person: he believes in his psychological ability to deal with existing problems. He looked at the world and wondered, "What can we do?" Or "How can things improve?"

Most importantly, wealth creators are inventors and innovators. The most obvious missing quality in his character is obedience, that is, passively accepting things or status quo that have been placed, recognized and established. He never said, "Good enough for my grandfather, good enough for me." He would just say, "Yesterday was good enough for me, but tomorrow is not good enough for me."

He won't wait for "good luck" or others to give him a chance. He creates and takes advantage of opportunities by himself. He never complained: "I can't avoid it!" "-he can avoid, and did it.

People who never create wealth bet on both sides. They "act cautiously" and wait for opportunities to follow suit. They are gamblers or desperate speculators. They participate in gambling according to the current stimulation, hearsay or their inexplicable emotions and blind intuition.

Wealth creators do not use the above two methods. He won't wait for the trend, he will set the direction of the trend. He doesn't gamble-he takes appropriate risks and really takes the responsibility that the above two situations try to ignore: the responsibility of judgment.

People who never create wealth have an "employee mentality", even if they are engaged in administrative work; He tried his best to avoid the smallest efforts, as if any efforts were unreasonable demands; When he couldn't take the right action, he shouted, "but no one told me what to do!" " "

The wealth creator has an "employer mentality", even if he is only an office handyman-that's why he won't be an handyman for a long time. In every job he uses, he is committed to the greatest efforts; He studies business knowledge as much as possible, which is far beyond his job needs. He never needs to be told-even in the face of circumstances beyond his usual obligations. These are the reasons why he was promoted from office boy to president of the company.

Behind his usually stern and expressionless appearance, the wealth creator always devotes himself to his career with the passion of a lover, the enthusiasm of a reformer, the dedication of a saint and the patience of a victim. As a standard, his wrinkled forehead and balance sheet are the only evidence that he can let the world know.

Neither time nor age can limit the exuberant energy and powerful motivation of wealth creators.

At the age of 22, George Westinghouse noticed frequent railway accidents caused by poor braking devices, and invented Westinghouse air brake. After some improvements, this kind of air brake has been used all over the world.

At the age of 69, Cornelius, Peter von Vanderbilt, who made a fortune in the shipping industry, discovered that railways would become the main means of transportation in the future. He gave up shipping and became one of the greatest figures in railway history. He is the founder of new york Railway Central System.

Arthur Davis died in 1962 at the age of 95. It was he who founded one of the greatest industrial companies in America: Alcoa. 2 1 year-old, Fortune magazine wrote: "Strictly speaking, he is almost the first employee of the company." "In the decades at the turn of the century, Alcoa was aluminum and Davis was Alcoa." His colleagues said that he had absolute confidence in "his business mind and judgment". He was described as: "he can't wait to finish his work ... he is unbearably calm, others' wit is not as agile as his own ... he has aristocratic temperament." "

At the age of 89, his wealth was estimated at $350 million. At this time, he moved to Florida and started a brand-new career, which incredibly involved many new interests: Florida real estate development, kindergartens, airlines, hotels, banks, dairy farms and so on. -He continues to manage all this with great efficiency and continues to succeed. When asked what his goal was, he replied bluntly: "I only buy assets to create wealth."

Note that their new venture is a long-term development and it will take decades to make a profit. Those who dream of winning wealth by gambling in lottery tickets will never understand his psychology.

Only the wealth owner's life and behavior are short-term planning, and his vision will never go beyond the present. The life, thoughts and actions of wealth creators are long-term planning. Because only when he has complete confidence in his own judgment, he also has complete confidence in the future, and only long-term planning can satisfy his interests. For wealth creators (and artists), work is not a painful obligation or a necessary evil, but a way of life; For him, production activities are the essence, the meaning and fun of existence; This is a dynamic state.

Arthur Davis founded Alcoa based on his extraordinary insight. He is a real builder-in order to survive, he must be a builder until the last moment of his life.

This foresight is a typical feature of all great wealth creators. J.P. Morgan is like this. He judges which industries have the potential for future development through his own ability, organizes and invests funds, and integrates them into an industrial giant, thus making a fortune. American steel company is one of its outstanding models, and it is also an outstanding model of andrew carnegie. His company property occupies the core position in the consortium, and his life begins with steel workers.

The ability of wealth creators has been strongly proved by Henry Ford: openly violating established customs and resisting fierce criticism and failed language alone. Ford is a revolutionary innovator in both technical and economic fields. He was the first discoverer of mass production with financial advantages-he was the first person to use the production line-and he was the first person to refute the theory of "class struggle" in practice. The way he adopted was to actively raise workers' wages, and his standards exceeded any group at that time; He did this not for altruistic purposes, but for a veritable rational purpose, that is, to attract the most capable workers and thus obtain higher production efficiency.

In his life, Ford's achievements were not recognized by intellectuals, who followed the trend of collectivism and indulged in the logic of "grabbing capitalists", thus vilifying all great industrialists. This slander asserts that those who created great prosperity in their country did so because they plundered those who did not.

Tom M. Gardeler was the last living representative of the great American era. He rose from the working class to the president of the Republic steel company, and he was a special victim of collectivism. As an independent and uncompromising embodiment and advocate, Godler launched a heroic movement against various politicians and intellectuals, who chose Godler as the target of ruthless attack.

Many contemporary critics who believe in collectivism claim that the era of great individualists-the era of independent thinking-has become a thing of the past (the realization of future progress will depend on everyone in a general sense to some extent, not anyone in a special sense). However, if we consider today's wealth creators, who overcame more and more political obstacles and the pressure of confiscation of taxes, bravely advanced and succeeded, we can find the same essential characteristics: the independent judgment ability to discover new things and engage in unheard-of businesses.

Fortune magazine wrote, "If someone in the Renaissance were alive today, he might find that running an American company is the most profitable opportunity for his amazing talent in many aspects. Among them, he may be a scientist, an artist, an inventor, an architect and a politician ... This company was established according to this man's image and influenced by him in every important detail. It produces a unique product in the world-this is the embodiment of its talent. Through careful selection, he gathered excellent colleagues around him. These colleagues will share his passion and enthusiasm and create and produce with him. "

"Such people just exist. He is edwin land; His company is called Cambridge Polaroid Company, which produces the world-famous 60-second camera.

Rand's history is the most obvious example of the real role of contemporary wealth creators: like Edison and Westinghouse, he is an inventor-style industrialist. He started from scratch, and his wealth is estimated to be around 1 billion dollars.

All experts assert that it is impossible to realize the idea that there is a camera that can take pictures, develop films and display finished photos in a single operation lasting several seconds. These problems seem insoluble. Rand solved these problems in six months. One of his colleagues said, "I'm willing to bet that a hundred doctors can't repeat Rand's achievements in ten years' continuous work. "

Rand encountered and resisted the resistance of habitual thinking waiting for every great inventor. "Rand's revolution was first ridiculed by all experts, that is, those who always know why the revolution can't succeed. These experts actually include every camera dealer in China, every' senior' amateur photographer, and almost everyone on Wall Street in Germany. "

Rand won, just like every great inventor, as long as he is free to win, he will win.

It is of special significance that many new millionaires have made a fortune, either because of new inventions or because they have the ability to save those poorly managed old-fashioned companies from the brink of bankruptcy.

One of the most interesting tasks in the second category is James E. Robinson, who is the director of the Indian flour mill. As a real wealth creator in the depressed textile industry plagued by protective tariffs and cotton subsidies, Robinson acquired wealth by acquiring declining textile mills and transforming them into dynamic and profitable enterprises through his own professional management.

His policy is based on opposing all forms of depression and overthrowing traditions and habits quickly and decisively. Fortune magazine called him "an advocate of maintaining the status quo".

When most businessmen keep silent, avoid or apologize for political philosophy, Robinson is still a fighter of pure capitalism. He seems fully aware of the fundamental crisis of our time, and he is not afraid to tell the truth.

He drafted a policy guide for India's Hyde Textile Factory, which declared: "The company's goal is to increase the intrinsic value of common stock"-and explained that the company's business is not "to become bigger in pursuit of scale, not to be more diversified, not to make everything the best or the best, not to provide jobs, have the most modern factories and the happiest customers, lead new product development, nor to obtain any other positions unrelated to the economic use of capital."

"Sometimes, any or all of the above situations are means to achieve our goals, but means and goals must not be confused. The sole purpose of Indian Hyde Textile Factory's business is to improve the intrinsic value of the company's general shareholders' common stock. "

It sounds shocking. It's an escape that permeates our cultural atmosphere: it's just economic common sense, and no productive company can play its role in other ways.

When he was young, Robinson was deeply influenced by Professor Malcolm P mcnair of Harvard Business School. He wrote: "The work of the world must be done, and people must be responsible for their own work and their own lives. Too much emphasis on interpersonal relationships will encourage people to sympathize with themselves, and it is easier for them to give up their responsibilities, make excuses for failure, and behave like children. "

This passage provides clues to the tragic situation of wealth creators. They are the only people who are fully aware that "the work of the world must be finished"-they continue to finish, but they are insulted, accused and questioned more and more. They continue, but they can't defend themselves or fully understand them. They only know that the survival of the world depends on their unremitting efforts.

In our culture, they are taciturn, obscure and forgotten. Only the owners of wealth will hire private advertisers and pose to attract public attention. Only the possessors of wealth will show off their wealth in a vulgar way, eager for "prestige" and attention, and desperately cling to the edge of "cafe society"

Wealth creators are not so keen on wealth. For him, wealth is just a means to an end-a means to expand his activities. Most wealth creators are indifferent to luxurious life, and their lifestyle is surprisingly simple compared with their wealth.

Not all wealth creators can acquire great wealth: their success depends largely on the degree of freedom that still exists in their specific fields. Some people only realize a small part of their creative potential; Someone who has never heard of it.

Under the present circumstances, it is impossible to guess its real number. I once asked the Greenspan Economic Consulting Company (Townsend-Greenspan &; Alan greenspan, the president of the company, boldly estimated the proportion of real wealth creators-that is, people with complete autonomy and independent judgment-in our business world. He thought for a moment and replied sadly, "On Wall Street-about 5%; In industry-about 15%. "

It is these insignificant and lonely few people who support our world with their shoulders.

Loneliness is our secret weapon to condemn wealth creators-this confusing loneliness has not disappeared because of a temporary pleasure. It is this loneliness that makes him a victim of some incredible injustice. His taciturn and indifferent way hides his great but frustrated kindness, his childlike innocence-and the strong pride he gained through hard work.

Collins P. Huntington, one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railway Company, was a very capable person with mixed premises in the last stage of his life. He has the passion of a wealth creator, but sometimes he appears as a wealth owner-his lifestyle has changed dramatically. He has always lived a simple life and despised all material luxuries and frivolous living conditions. However, when he was in his sixties, he suddenly turned frantically to luxury life, buying palace-style houses, French furniture, real works of art and expensive poor literature indiscriminately-all of which he once accused his partners of buying.

Among all these random purchases, there was an oil painting depicting an ancient scene, for which he paid $25,000-an act that was incomprehensible to his peers. However, in his autobiographical manuscript, Huntington wrote this picture:

There are seven figures in this painting-there are three leaders with different religious beliefs dressed in red. There is also an old missionary who has just returned; He is explaining the scar left by the complete cutting off of his hands; He is explaining a story to these cardinals; Their clothes are very luxurious. One of them is playing with a dog; A person is sleeping; Only one person looked at him-looked at him with that expression, as if to say that you are a complete idiot. When we enjoy family happiness at home, you should go out and suffer for mankind. When I looked at the picture, I was immersed in the story. Sometimes, I just sit there and stare at that painting for half an hour.

What is the story Huntington saw? He saw a lonely and unappreciated warrior ... he saw a wealth creator and a fighter fighting for human survival in the jungle of inanimate objects-that is, the only person who remembered that the work of the world must be completed.