Why I’m a capitalist?
The more I read about the rich, the more I gravitated towards their ideologies. I realized early in my quest that you get paid in direct proportion to your ability to solve problems; not in proportion to your hard work! If hard work is the criterion for success (or great wealth) than the rickshaw pullers and laborers would have been the richest people in the world. But, despite their hard work, sadly, they remain poor.
I grew up listening to the popular middle class anguish that it takes money to make money and that all rich people are crooks. I’ve also heard many a times my father telling me that his classmates who were not good in studies (or dropped out of school) are now richer than him, while those who were good in studies are struggling financially.
I’ve always admired my father for his wide array of knowledge to quench the inquisitive thirst of a kid, whose questions were limitless. I still treasure those childhood days, when he would point towards the night sky and showed me the Milky Way, the Pole Star, a few constellations and taught me how to differentiate between a star and a planet, and how to identify man-made satellites from the myriad heavenly bodies. So, the seed for my quest for the cosmos was sown by my father.
I was probably 10, when one day, I asked my father what a stock market is and what does Sensex mean? He, however, couldn’t answer it. I was surprised. Till that moment in my life, my father was my personal Google Search Engine!
However, I forgot about that episode until I turned 18, when one day I remembered that incident and decided that I need to dig deeper about stock market. By that time, I was little aware that stock market is the playground of the rich and I wanted to play on their playground. There begin my quest.
Until that point in time, I was a firm believer of the middle class maxim: study well, earn good grades and look for a well paying job. Little did I realize then that things were about to take a big U-turn and change my life for good (or bad).
The more I read about the rich, the more I gravitated towards their ideologies. I realized early in my quest that you get paid in direct proportion to your ability to solve problems; not in proportion to your hard work! If hard work is the criterion for success (or great wealth) than the rickshaw pullers and laborers would have been the richest people in the world. But, despite their hard work, sadly, they remain poor.
Slowly, but certainly, my entire world view was beginning to shatter.
The basic reason where the school system errs is when they install in the minds of students that hard work is equal to success. And hence, the students put in all their hard work to acquire one degree after another, oblivious to the fact that world doesn’t reward the most qualified but those who solve problems.
And to solve problems, it is not essential to be the most qualified person either. In fact, sometimes, a little dose of common sense is enough!
I feel sorry for those science students who don’t know the basic principle on which the entire subject of science is based. Once, I asked a handful of smart science students about the FIRST PRINCIPLES. They all gave me blank looks. They didn’t have a freaking idea what FIRST PRINCIPLES is?
The First Principles thinking is the basis of science (in fact, of all knowledge). It is the thinking process to look for new solutions to old problems in the most fundamental way. To elucidate, let me take the example of Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX. I hope, you know about SpaceX, even if you might not have heard about Elon (who doesn’t know Elon? The cavemen, maybe!).
I read how Elon Musk uses the First Principles thinking in his official biography ‘Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future’ by Ashlee Vance (2015). When SpaceX was launched, he wanted to buy an inter-continental ballistic missile to launch satellites into space. He approached the Russians. The price tag for one such missile was $65 million! Moreover, the downside of paying such a huge sum is that, that piece of metal could be used only for once.
This made him thought; instead of paying such a high price, why not make one himself? He used his First Principles thinking: what is a rocket make of? Basically, a rocket is a proper assemblage of aerospace grade aluminium and titanium alloys, carbon fiber, wires, and then you fill it up with propellant and lit it up.
His First Principle thinking helped him to find that the cost of all these components is just 2% of the total rocket price! So instead of buying off the shelf ICBM/rocket, he decided to build his own rockets. And boy, he is currently putting satellites into space like no other space organisations could even imagine. And he is soon going to put about 30,000 satellites – more than triple of all mankind has so far put into space!
How is this possible for a private space company that began its journey in 2002 with just $100 millions to achieve such impossible targets? Primarily because of Elon’s First Principles thinking mindset. A space launch is costly because rocketry is just a use-and-throw affair. So Elon thought, why not use a rocket multiple times, like an aeroplane?
Had we discarded an aeroplane after a single flight, the air flight would have been so costly that only a handful of people could have afforded. So, if – thought Elon – a rocket can be used for multiple flights, than the cost of space launch would drastically come down. So he put SpaceX to find a solution. Now, the company has the capability to safely land the first stage of a rocket using grasshopper rocket legs technology. The re-usability of rocket is no more a science fantasy. The First Principles thinking has done it again.
Now, for those who are hurt to read that a dose of common sense is enough – over qualification – to solve problems, this is what I meant. Elon is not a scientist by qualification; but he has solved more problems with his common sense thinking than the millions of scientists around the world! And I’ve still not mentioned anything about Tesla Motors, SolarCity, Hyperloop, OpenAI, The Boring Company or Neuralink, the other world changing innovative companies Elon is running!
This brings me to the concluding part of the blog and the reason why I’m a capitalist. The capitalist system allows the freedom to fail but also the freedom to succeed. In the capitalist system, it is alright if you don’t have a degree, but as long as you can make it work, the system will reward you. The capitalist system doesn’t reward your qualification(s); it rewards your street smartness. In the capitalist system, you don’t need money to make more money. The system is flushed with money to invest in you and your worthy idea. In a recent report (I don’t remember the reference) it was found that more than 80% of billionaires are the first-generation rich. Eight out of ten billionaires are self made!
It is in the capitalist system, where you’re allowed to dream, work for your dream(s) and quite possibly, live your dream(s)!
I’m a capitalist, but my greed for wealth is just a way towards my dreams; for what worth wealth is on a sick/death bed?