Comments on: Thoughts On Traditional Business

By: Garsen Subramoney

Garsen Subramoney — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:12:10 +0000

I agree with the spirit of what you are driving at TR. However (with me there are so many howevers).

Experience has taught me that trust in business is only as good as the lawyers you hired to draft up your contracts. Its extremely difficult for the human animal to balance doing the right thing (honouring obligations, acting in others best interests etc) when greed comes into the equation. This becomes more and more true the more and more money you start playing for.

Like you i loath the paperwork but I would never do a deal without the paper work. Too bad so many trees have to die to keep us all honest.

Our current system of capitalism does not reward those who don’t play it very hard. Try getting a loan from the bank as an example. I dont like how our current system grinds out much of the idealism young entrepreneurs have but not all of us have the same luck as Sergey and Larry.

I don’t agree completely that if you do what you love the money flows . Well i guess that really depends on how much money you want to flow. Of course there are great exceptions to prove me wrong but by in large you do what you have to, to get by.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:29:08 +0000

Do what you love and money should be a natural by-product. Things often go downhill if you aim for the money first in an industry or business that doesn’t make you jump out of bed in the morning.

I’ve run a few businesses (the first was a design/print business in high school) and worked for a few companies (the longest was as a web strategist for an online gaming company for 6 years). I’m always thankful for the freedom and fulfillment that comes with running your own business; challenges and stress are just hurdles that I’m happy to have to jump over.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:09:55 +0000

@Charl I couldn’t agree with you more! During high school I heard a wonderful saying, “If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.”. After hearing that, I knew I wouldn’t settle for anything less than what I am passionate about. I rather love life than be rich and unhappy.

By: Charl van Niekerk

Charl van Niekerk — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:06:26 +0000

I know exactly what you mean! Running a company is one of the quickest ways to learn but unfortunately sometimes also the hardest. It seems like the people that really work for the passion are in the minority, but they are fantastic to work with because they are there to get the job done and not to argue about crazy little things that make no logical sense. It really frustrates me that people can be so short-sighted sometimes. If you work most of your life, what’s the purpose of working if you don’t enjoy it? So what – you end up with a couple of hundred million rand when you’re 80 but you hated the good years of your life? This is what has been happening to me a while back and am thankful to be out of it now – at least I have my good years ahead of me still so rather earlier than later.