Bottom line - the purpose of EVERY business is a) to
acquire and b) to retain customers. There is no other purpose of
a business except for the owner himself, which is to create the desired
lifestyle for themself and their family/SOs.
Blakeman, this is the second time I`ve run across your above. It bothers me a bit, because I`m thinking the rule doesn`t include the concept of product....does it?
I would say the purpose of all businesses is to exchange a product for a value. I understand that acquiring and keeping customers is essential, but without a product, why would customers be involved?
Some would say this is "semantics," or "nit-picking." My argument is that rules of the mind (definitions) are the same as SOPs for the business of life. In fact, a morality is exactly that---the articulated standards for operations and procedures when dealing with life.
There`s no such entity as a "business." It`s an abstract concept, like "the government," which ultimately resolves to actual human beings. I take your point that you`re trying to focus the business-owner on what`s perhaps the second most important aspect of what they`re doing. But I think we want to keep sight of the fact that without a product, there can`t be a business. :-) Would you agree?
The "hunter-gatherer" isn`t exchanging anything for a value. They`re using all the resources they acquire to survive. Farming, initially produces a surplus that exchanges work today for survival tomorrow.
But when we refer to "farming" as in this analogy, there`s an implied but unstated assumption that each farm is producing more than enough for the single farmer and family. The implication is there`s a surplus that the farm then sells to a market.
Simply learning how to plant and grow crops wasn`t sufficient to bring on Civilization. Go back to the original organization of the pilgrims, arriving in America. They set up farms under a communal system, and grew enough to barely survive. It wasn`t until they decided to expand each farm to produce *surplus* that they began running businesses and introduced capitalism into the equation.
Additionally, the hunter-gatherer doesn`t own the resources of nuts and berries. They use those resources, relying on Nature to replenish them. The farmer may or may not own the produce from the farm, depending on the political environment. Given the principle of personal ownership, it then becomes valuable to the farmer to replenish their resources.
That would mean holding back "seeds" for the plants they intend to renew or repeat each season. Hence the term "seed" money, improperly used in my opinion. "Re-invest" is a better term, and that means having some sort of surplus.



