Can a man be a winner if he doesn't know business?

Since 1989, democracy has won over communism. Francis Fukuyama calls it "the end of history," in his book of the same title. He meant that liberal democracy has won over communism.

However, that's at the political level. At the economic level, capitalism is still in need of reformation so it can respond better to people's real needs, as well as reduce the damage inflicted on the environment.

But concretely speaking, capitalism is now the only game in town. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by ownership of the means of production and private property.

If you live in a democratic political system such as Canada or the United States, it's great. You enjoy a certain measure of economic freedom that many people in developing nations do not enjoy. You also enjoy a certain level of social peace and harmony.

However, even within such a democratic system, you might be a "loser" in the sense that if you don't operate according to the rules of capitalism, then you are not fully actualizing your economic and entrepreneurial potential.

In plain English, it means you might be earning only a FRACTION of what you COULD be earning.

If you understood capitalism and business, you could be making 20 to 100 times what you are currently making. Making that much more money has little to do with how smart you are; it is simply a matter of mathematical leverage (the secrets are explained in Richard Koch's book The 80/20 Individual).

The question is, "Can a man be a winner if he doesn't know business?"

I can't say that a working man is a loser. He is definitely a responsible person who works hard every day to fulfill his financial obligations, and is contributing to the government's funding.

But I also can't say that such a man is a winner. To be a winner in any game, one must be able to score points.

Take a game like basketball, or tennis, or even golf. There are rules, and one must play by the rules in order to win.

If capitalism is the only game in town, then you have no choice but to know its rules. That is, you have to know business. If you don't know the rules of business, then you cannot possibly win.

You might be doing, on a daily basis, "what you're supposed to do and what others expect you to do," but you are definitely not winning the game.

I will write more about this, but the game of business is not about money. It's about creating life and realizing freedom. A good businessman can set up a business, hire the right managers to run it, and go away to do things he really enjoys doing. Of course, he would require that all his managers email him the vital business stats and key performance indicators so that he can make sure his businesses are operating as planned and are producing healthy cashflows.