The Harder You Work, The Luckier You Get

Capital Thinking • Issue #454 • View online

I loved this interview with Joe Ricketts.

He's totally right, socialism sounds great on the surface. It’s a crappy way to live in practice.

I have met people that escaped socialism before the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. They hated it.

I also know people that left formerly socialist ruled countries post fall of the Berlin Wall and they wouldn’t trade our capitalistic system for anything.

-Jeff Carter

Free Enterprise Is the Only Way Forward

Points and Figures by Jeff Carter

I can’t wait to read the book. “The Harder You Work, The Luckier You Get”. Makes total sense to me. My friend Curt wrote about the book here.

My experience is that if you put yourself in a position to be lucky, you get lucky. It doesn’t happen sitting on your ass or buying lotto tickets. You have to work, take risk, and compete.

We have forgotten how to compete in America. Everyone gets a trophy? Don’t think so. Everyone makes the all-star team? Don’t think so.

We also have a lot of public policy that stops competition.

We need to get rid of it.

Competition sharpens the knife edge. It makes you better. It makes you more innovative. Creative destruction is great.

The rate of business creation has been going down for years and years. It’s not something new.

What’s weird is if you have access to the tools, it’s never been easier to start a business. I do think our public education system teaches people to be anti-business.

It should be no surprise that a lot of people go to college and major in “gut” majors which teach them even more anti-business theory. Sorry, but that sort of degree is worthless in modern society.

Get a STEM degree. Get a business degree. Get something like a history degree which teaches you to critically think. There are folks out there that just think some people are entitled. They aren’t.

Or, go to a community college and take business classes. Learn a trade. Start a business. Or, apprentice. Learn. Start a business.

Here are some caveats and additions that I would make to what Joe talked about.

1. You have to take a risk to get a reward. Risk entails the possibility of failure. People don’t like failure, and the politicians demonize and penalize it. In many cases, when people are successful they demonize and penalize that. He took a big risk and started a company. He saw something others didn’t and executed on it. In my personal life, I have taken a lot of risks that were crazy to outsiders. Some paid off, some didn’t. I am sure if you sat down with Joe he’d be able to talk a long time about failures. When you take risks and are successful, it doesn’t mean you are King Midas. Heck, most venture capital deals don’t work out.

2.The Free Enterprise system can be a person just cleaning houses and making money for themselves. Or, it can be a scalable startup. Or, it can be a Mom and Pop shop that services some customers. There are no rules in the free enterprise system. There are no chains binding you. You are as good as you can execute on your idea. There is a home for everyone and you can jump in and out of jobs at your own discretion in the free enterprise system. It doesn’t mean you can get any job you want-but if you put yourself in a position to change from being a coal miner to an investment banker, you can do it.

3.The talk about the rich and poor is something to keep in mind, but we need to focus on the ability or opportunity. Read this study for more. As long as there is a decent chance for a person to start a business and pull themselves up, trying to figure out ways to equalize incomes or the gulf between the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor is a waste of time. Instead, focus on creating the chance for someone to take. Focus on educating them and giving them the ability to take that chance.

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I am sick and tired of seeing capitalism demonized.

That’s why when I am on panels I always say with tongue in cheek that I am a “capitalistic pig”.

I am a hardcore capitalist because I have seen how it can change people’s lives. I am anti-socialist because socialism destroys people. It destroys society. In its most virulent forms, it kills people.

That’s the debate we should be having today and no one is calling anyone out on it.