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LET US PRAISE THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS
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Perhaps we are a country so familiar with success that all we have left is contempt.
The following article appeared in a recent newspaper commenting on why entrepeneurs and risk takers should be lauded rather than decried because they provide the jobs for all those who take no risks!
Last week, Melbourne businessman John Ilhan died while walking near his Brighton home. The Age duly editorialised about Ilhan’s death quoting him in a newspaper article describing Australia Day as a chance to celebrate the best decision his family ever made - coming to Australia. “Australia doesn’t owe us anything. We owe Australia.” According to The Age, Ilhan repaid that debt by giving his time and money to charities and, as the son of Turkish immigrants, enriching the culture. No doubt true. But, in fact, Ilhan’s greatest gift to Australia was that he took risks and succeeded in business, creating hundreds of jobs for fellow Australians.
When was the last time we read about the importance of those willing to take risks, often putting everything they own on the line in an effort to build up a business? These entrepreneurs are rarely lauded. Instead, when things go awry, as is inevitable given that it is in the nature of risk that not all will pay off, we are only too ready to bag the losers. The thing is that the world could do with more John Ilhans. Most of us are more cautious. Most of us free-ride on their efforts, picking up jobs off the back of those who are willing to start up a business. And remember, every big business was once a small business built up through the sheer grit and vision of guys like Ilhan.
It’s predictable that nostalgic left-wing think tanks still reading dog-eared copies of Das Capital will decry capitalism as a sign of a greedy society. Unfortunately, there is now a sense of widespread shame about capitalism. Those who ought to know better regard business success as rather vulgar, as something that cannot be celebrated as a public good unless it is coupled with corporate philanthropy. If you are not giving to charity, you cannot be sainted. To be a good corporate citizen, it’s no longer enough to build up a business and provide jobs.
At a fancy dinner recently, sitting next to an ageing and very successful businessman who explained that it was time he started making a contribution to society.When I questioned this pointing out that he had spent years investing in many businesses, allowing them to grow and employ people?
He scoffed at the suggestion and felt embarrassed that this was all he had done in his life. Perhaps it’s the approach of death that sends these guys flurrying, with a religious zeal, to some apparent higher ideal that requires them to articulate a sense of shame about business success.
Even over at The Australian Financial Review, the opinion pages are given over to those who demean the public corporation as an evil blight on society that needs to be regulated in order to behave as “good citizens.” The pursuit of profit and self-interest apparently gets in the way of them behaving as good citizens. It’s nonsense, of course. The pursuit of profit and self-interest ultimately drives progress, creates jobs and boosts our wealth.
This widespread ignorance over the importance of capitalism is a sign that our prosperous society has forgotten how it came to be so prosperous. It’s time we started praising men and women for taking risks - and yes, pursuing profit and self-interest. Those efforts enrich our society. Vale John Ilhan.
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