The essential foundation of good business is it must be mutually beneficial. It is good for you and (not or ...) it is good for me. Without this essential aspect of any transaction between two parties, one participant is taking advantage of the other. Full stop. Period.
Good business. How do my fellow Steemians view this fundamental element of our lives? No matter where on this good earth we may live? To facilitate a conversation about it, let’s take a closer look at the subject of this post.
Exchange of Value
To begin with, for a mutually beneficial business transaction to take place, both participants need to “bring something to the table.” Something which is deemed by the other participant to be of value. Otherwise, you aren’t talking about business, you are talking about some form of charity.
The history of what we consider to be of value at any point in time is interesting. In its own right, it is a study of what is most commonly referred to as “money.” Today, as we are writing and reading posts in the SteemIt community, we are in the early stages of experiencing the creation of “virtual money,” i.e. the crypto asset class, being considered for this purpose.
We’ll all find out together how that goes.
Trust and Good Communication
One inescapable feature of any transaction is how well informed the two participants are about the trade under consideration. We cannot all know “everything about everything,” so how important a consideration is trust? In our fellow man?
Trust is based on honesty and integrity. How important are honesty and integrity to good business? Everything, as “mutually beneficial” cannot be separated from them. One participant in a trade is generally going to be better informed about the focus of it than the other. What are the intentions of this person? Honorable? While we cannot know “everything about everything,” we must do our best to be good at discerning the intentions of others.
Electing to trust the other party, we ultimately find “the proof is in the pudding.” How do we feel about the business transaction with the passage of time? Pretty good? Really good (hopefully)? I think a key feature of any good business transaction is what happens afterwards. Ideally, if we are satisfied, particularly if we are well satisfied, we should let others know about it.
By our efforts in good communication, we are playing a vital role in good business by closing “the circle of trust” and helping our family and friends make future beneficial business decisions. And the supplier of the goods and / or services prospers, based on how well they have done in the past with you and others. Conversely, if they have performed poorly or, worse, dishonestly, you are helping others by bringing this “out in the light.” The "law of sowing and reaping" usually does a good job of taking it from there ...
Socialism vs. Capitalism vs. Free Enterprise
We can’t finish up a post on the subject, without a brief mention of the various forms of business “out there” in the big wide world. Volumes could (and have been) written about each of these, but I’d like to just highlight a few key concepts.
To your humble correspondent, in all of its various forms, socialism cannot be considered the basis for good business transactions. It is far too dependent on the coercive power of the State. Said differently, if the coercive power of the State is removed “from the equation,” Socialism will always fail, as people will not voluntarily enter into it. At least the “producers” of goods and services won’t, whose well earned income from past efforts is coercively “distributed” to others … Perhaps someday, I’ll write another post contrasting socialism and charity.
The classic comparison typically seen “in the press” is between socialism and capitalism. Given that I am not supportive of socialism, I must be a big advocate for capitalism. Right? NO! At least not in the form we see it most everywhere.
What is the problem with capitalism? In an ideal world, no one is “above the law.” Assuming of course (a very big assumption) that the law is “good.” In far too many instances, the State is not responsibly exercising its power enough to prevent the cannibalistic, monopolistic tendencies of many businesses. Rather than continue to produce good value by innovation and hard work, they grow complacent and lazy, choosing instead to “grow” by taking over their competition. By whatever means they can get away with … The State becomes corrupted, by the influence of these businesses, from performing their critical restraining function. So, capitalism too often leads to global “giants” which unfairly limit competition and our choices …
Free enterprise is based on the subject of this post. Mutually beneficial exchanges of value. As free exercises of our individual wills. In a marketplace consisting of billions and billions of these individual transactions. All taking place without any coercion, of any kind, at any level. Freedom and, better, liberty are the vital cornerstone for this foundation. I have written a related SteemIt post here on liberty, which dear reader, if you’ve made it this far in reading this one, you may find of interest.
Closing
It is a fascinating time in human history that we can “talk” with each other anywhere on the face of the earth, in a very short period of time. This is unprecedented and we are in the early stages of finding out what it all means.
For one, I am excited about what blockchain technology and the secure networks they support mean for the future of good business. As one obvious example, here we are, on the SteemIt platform, “talking” about it!
Hoping this to be sufficient to “get the ball rolling” on a conversation, I’ll close for now. Your comments, upvotes, etc. are welcome. In whatever way seems best to you is good with me.
All the best to you in your future business dealings!