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How Entrepreneurs Build the Wealth of Nations

How Entrepreneurs Build the Wealth of Nations

I know you will not argue with this statement. “The value of everything is originally equal to zero.” The best way to understand this concept is to explain it with the first law of the 3 laws of value in 3S Rules.

The first law of value states that the value of anything is originally at a raw state to be harnessed. What does this mean? It means that a child that will be a doctor in the future has zero medical knowledge when he was an infant. It means that when a chair and table were trees, their value was zero. In fact, the monetary value (GDP) of countries grew from zero upwards.

This is to point out that value is a function and a creation of man. The wealth of nations measured as GDP were built by men from Zero level. The men that build the wealth of nations are called entrepreneurs. The purpose of this article is to show you how Jeff Bezos is building the wealth of the USA through Amazon and how you can apply it to your nations. 

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Building the Wealth of Nations – The Example of Jeff Bezos of Amazon

The man Jeff Bezos was not known not until he founded Amazon. That means there was nothing like Amazon until Jeff Bezos created it. When you imagine the enormous impact of this company to the United States and the entire world you will be amazed. This is how men build the wealth of nations.

What did Jeff Bezos do differently? How did he build a company that is now worth $1tn in market capitalization and become the richest man. Here are the three Things he did differently.

  • The Entrepreneurial Opportunity:

Jeff Bezos was a very intelligent young man who graduated from Princeton University where he studied computer science. He left there to work for DE Shaw where he rose to become a senior and a valuable staff.

One of those days he discovered a number on the internet that changed his career trajectory forever. He found that the internet was growing by 2300% monthly. This was an important discovery for him, which he analysed to mean that in the nearest future people will start shopping online. This was an insight and an entrepreneurial opportunity.

But there was one challenge. What decision should he make?

  • The Entrepreneurial Decision

He has two careers before him that he needs to make a decision on. Should he continue as an employee in DE Shaw where he was doing well or should he resign and focus on the entrepreneurial opportunity at that time present?  What would be your decision if you were to be in Jeff Bezos’ shoes?

The men who build the wealth of the nation are risk takers. They always go against the tide to experiment business opportunities.Jeff decided to resign from his paying job at DE Shaw where he was doing well. But there were many challenges he would face with such a decision. There will be no paycheck anymore and other associated problems.

  • The Entrepreneurial Result:

Jeff decided to explore his internet-discovered idea. That decision gave birth to the Amazon company which was a pioneer of the e-commerce industry. In May 1994,  Amazon was launched, and three years after that it was listed on the NASDAQ due to the success of the business idea.

This decision made him the richest man in the world and his company is currently one of the leading companies on valuation.

This is how this entrepreneur has built the wealth of his great nation, the United States of America. For you to be among the entrepreneurs that will build the wealth of your nation, you must be willing to make an unfavourable decision that Jeff made.

How Amazon Improved America

  • It creates employment opportunities

The establishment or the founding of Amazon has created thousands of  direct and indirect jobs. One of the macroeconomic goals of every nation is to achieve a low rate of unemployment. This is exactly the impact of Amazon. According to Statista Amazon has 789,000 employees in 2019. 

  • It increases the governmental revenue

The operation of this company in the United States has automatically increased the government revenue of the nation. Payment of income tax, corporate tax, etc to the federal and state government will help the government to meet its obligations to the citizens.

Here is the report fromAmazon Blog about Amazon’s 2019 Tax payment;

  1. Over $1 billion in federal income tax expense.
  2. More than $2.4 billion in other federal taxes, including payroll taxes and customs duties.
  3. More than $1.6 billion in state and local taxes, including payroll taxes, property taxes, state income taxes, and gross receipts taxes.
  • It raises the standard of living

Employment creation simply means more people working and earning. It means as they earn, their standard of living will rise due to the increase of their disposable income. Will you work for amazon if employed?  I guess your answer will be yes because of better conditions of work when you work with the company.

Jeff Bezos is estimated to be worth about $121.1 billion. This makes him the fifth richest country in Africa if he were to be a nation in the continent.

We need African entrepreneurs to do what Jeff Bezos did in building the wealth of his nation. Will you take up this challenge? 

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7 THOUGHTS ON How Entrepreneurs Build the Wealth of Nations

  1. The piece missed one key element, the most important one anyway: the people!

    Jeff rose because the people in his environment BELIEVED and TRUSTED him, and so they gave him the chance to write the beautiful story we all now read and marvel. We are not lacking people who think like Jeff, we have them in abundance, that I can guarantee you!

    The disconnect? The people who will believe in those brilliant and courageous minds, to allow their own stories to tower; that’s what we lack here.

    Go to the places we call banks, then read through the stringent conditions they put out for young and aspiring entrepreneurs to meet, before getting some loan. If the governments have failed us, do we also need to fail our own compatriots? We are not doing enough to support our people, irrespective of the political misgovernance in the land.

    Let’s leave aside those who don’t have money, the people with decent amount in their wallets and bank accounts, how many young entrepreneurs and start-ups are they taking risk on? We want guaranteed returns, and somewhat want to produce Jeff, Bill or Steve here; what kind of joke is that?

    If you have N50M now, where are you likely to invest it? From virgin land to securities! Yet we want to have Jeffs here.

    • I definitely agree. Many who have risen will rather continue to rise than believe in the dream and support a young entrepreneur to at least get off the ground It’s like a betrayed car engine thinking the blender is it’s competition, forgetting they all have their purposes

      • We have entrepreneurs that have put together systems for impact investment.
        Examples of such is AGRA, TEF etc. These investment are in the form of grants to start-up owners who are already doing something.

        When you believe that successful entrepreneurs don’t support upcoming once then it will be a mindset that will limit your ascension in life.

        See opportunities in difficulties…

    • Thanks for your comment.

      Here is the fact, the difference between what you highlighted above and real entrepreneurs is that real entrepreneurs can not be halted by challenges, they find a way around such challenges.

      The question is this…there no investor that invest in just idea, you need to turn your idea into a tested MVP, most times this is what you’ll do by your own effort. Then, you can now explore funding opportunities.

      People are doing this already.

    • Thanks for your comment.

      Here is the fact, the difference between what you highlighted above and real entrepreneurs is that real entrepreneurs can not be halted by challenges, they find a way around such challenges.

      The question is this…there no investor that invest in just idea, you need to turn your idea into a tested MVP, most times this is what you’ll do by your own effort. Then, you can now explore funding opportunities.

      People are doing this already.

    • Needless to add! The moment we stop to think abundance we will realize the power we have and the quality we have such as Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs etc in the continent.
      The gap is scarcity and survival mentality of those who have. Anyways, I have stopped to point figures because 90% of those we call wealthy class don’t understand wealth and how it is created. They money was gotten by act of whom they know not by act of creation like we know of the men who built America on merit, talent and competence.
      But, I’m an optimist of our future because many young people are creating and changing the narrative anyways.

      • Great comment.

        This is one of my favorite comment in this post.
        90% of the wealthy in Nigeria and Africa acquire their wealth they didn’t create the wealth.

        Wealth created actually build the economy and not wealth acquired through connection and political means.

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