Business and politics

67801442Now there seems to be a bit of fashion in businessmen going into politics. We have mr. Naftali Bennet in Israel, and mr. Donald Trump in the US.

Both people most do not like much (mr. Bennet, as a Jew is not liked in the world, though we Jews off cause like him), and mr. Trump is getting a little more popular, but still has a long way to go to be accepted.

Now, this is not to help in the American election, it struck me because as a Zionist I read about the generation of Israelies, that boomed in the dot com time, and is trying to cope with the hard wrenched IT world, and politics.

I have a similar background, I started as a project leader in IT, and shifted after some years to politics and philosophy.

So perhaps my experience can be of a little use.

The reason why I quit the IT business, was because of a moral drive. In IT there is a lot of corruption and a lot of easy money made. After some years learning the ins and outs of that business, I quit it because in a world, you need to stay moral. You need to stay a moral person.

After that I became a teacher and then a philosopher.

That is really the link, as I see it, from business to politics. You need to have a mission, a moral mission. I know that people often despise politicians for being driven by the system. That is true, there are a lot of politicians that are more bureaucrats than politicians. But the good politicians are there to change the world to something better.

It may sound quite silly and obvious, but the truth of the matter is, that as you are grinded down in the political machine, you often lose the ideas as to why you started out. Why you began in the first place. Because you need money and you start doing deals to get something done.

That is natural, but as power corrupts, politics corrupts too. What you therefor need, according to the Romans, is a solid character. Something stoically indestructible. Some higher aspirations. It can be the quest for freedom, solidarity, justice or brotherhood of man. But you need to cling on to those values and virtues.

This is not to be condescending. I do not judge anyone. Just as a afterthought to the mechanics of politics in relation to business.

In business what you need is a fierce will, fighting skills and the ability to understand and analyse markets, competitors and the general layout of the world.

This you also need in politics. But you need something more, you need knowledge of two things; political philosophy and history. The first to get deep into the whereabouts of virtues, the second to avoid doing the same mistakes as leaders before you.

If you want to be smart, you need knowledge. Because you can only know your steps forward, if you know the general layout of the market, and in politics, politics is the market.

G-d bless the wisdom of the Romans.

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