One of the best ways to become wealthy is to create values which didn't previously exist.

Read that statement again, because it encapsulates the rational selfishness philosophy.

If you merely trade values, then you make a living but do not become wealthy and empowered. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, if that is what you want, but creativity is the key to riches.

As an example, imagine we are on an island together with ten other families. Let's trade values. I'll fix your hut roof for two hours, whilst you husk coconuts for me for two hours. Fair? Sure. No problem.Tomorrow, I'll fish for my family and your family for five hours as long as you collect firewood and water for your family and my family for five hours. Okay? Yes. No problems here.

There's nothing wrong with this way of going on, and we could exist for centuries like this. In fact this is exactly how primitive societies did (and still do) operate. But there is no progress. Why is progress desirable? Because without it we are all still working for sixteen hours a day in mindless, numbing physical toil - just as people did for centuries, just as they are still doing now in many parts of the world. The fact that we swap jobs (trade values) doesn't actually improve our lives very much apart from a slight efficiency due to division of labor.

Now, let's create some values. Assume all ten families spend three hours a day collecting fresh water from the distant mountain stream. As an 'entrepreneur' you see a way of greatly improving the physical comfort of your family whilst also greatly improving the physical comfort of every other family on the island.

Indeed, you intend to create an honest, tradable value which will make you wealthy, but also make everyone else better off too. This is the essential point about getting wealthy through creating an honest value - everyone benefits.

Note one vital principle here. You are not motivated by altruism to improve the lot of others. You are solely interested in improving your own lot, and that of your family. You are acting selfishly. How can you act in any other way? This is what gets you out of bed in the morning.You are rational, because you know that the only sustainable way of becoming wealthy is to create something of lasting benefit to others (an honest value) otherwise they won't 'buy' it. The only alternative is for you to use force to enslave the population of the island to your desires, or to con them out of their values.

Okay, so what are you going to do? Through your ingenuity, your creativeness and your honest toil during what should be your rest period, you are going to create a neat piping system of bamboo cane which brings water down from the stream right into the village. You plan, you scheme, you work and sweat and toil. You sacrifice your leisure and a portion of your life. You take risks - it might not work. You place yourself in danger - the mountain is steep and slippery. Of course, you need to conduct a market survey, so you gather all the villagers together and say this: "For centuries the women have walked two miles a day to that hill with their water jars to fetch the daily water for their families. You all know that each family spends three hours a day in this pursuit. If I could bring you the same water, here, into the village and you could collect it in five minutes instead of three hours, would each family work for one hour a day on various tasks dictated for my family?"

Now of course the resounding answer would be "Yes!" Note the vital point here: everyone is a winner. Each family gains two precious hours a day for nothing - absolutely free, for zero effort on their part. They can use this time to grow more crops, fix up the hut, or whatever else they want to do. The net effect is that their lives are enriched and their standard of living rises, all due to your ingenuity, risk, and discipline.In return for your effort, ingenuity, skill and daring, you become a wealthy man. How? Because you now have ten families working one hour a day for you and so you can 'retire'. In other words, because you created values for others which they willingly bought from you, you have freed yourself from the need ever to work again. There is no money on our island, but money is merely a token of so many units of human labor.There are several important points here.

Firstly you did not force anyone to do anything. This is not slavery. The man who says that modern work is slavery is a fool who has never felt the lash on his back.

In fact you freed the people from two full hours of soul-destroying donkeywork each and every day of their lives, and the price you charged them for these two hours was - zero.Secondly you did it for you, not for them, and you're proud to admit it. You're also proud of your water system. You're trying to add filtration and perhaps design an automatic coconut husker too.

Furthermore, you are proud of your wealth and your achievements. It makes you feel good to be alive. You know you created something of lasting value, and you're receiving the rewards which you are due. These rewards spur you on to greater efforts which will make you wealthier and improve the living standard of all of the villagers.

Also, no villager is prevented from following in your footsteps, and so you act like a hero or heroine leading others on to greater efforts.

Perhaps another villager will be inspired enough to start making boats in his free two hours - the two hours which you created for him and gave to him free. Now we can all go to where the fish are plentiful - by 'renting' his boats, of course.

Instead of spending three hours fishing, we now spend one hour, and pay him one hour in rent. So we are all better off to the tune of another hour a day, with no drop in living standards. In other words, we work less hard for the same amount of fish and fresh water. Or, of course, we can choose to work the same hours as before and get more fish and fresh water. In other words, everyone has become wealthier.

Copyright 2003 Stuart Goldsmith

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