-Mauritz Bekker-

Please re-visit the article titled;”The History of Entrepreneurship” as well “How wealth is created” before you read this.

The shackles of poverty can only be broken from inside. An outside force can unfortunately not do the job; the power must come from the creative minds of the people in an economy or sub-economy. Outside forces can however play an important role in helping to unleash the latent powers present in every human.  This freeing of creative minds will happen if we can manage to uphold a true free market system, and effectively unleash with the correct kind of education. In this environment people should be trained to adapt entrepreneurial mindsets, apply their creativity and innovative talents to solve problems for one another and trade in these solutions.

We all have different and unique talents, which make each of us a master in a specific field. If we can apply our unique abilities to solve problems for each other, start trading in these solutions, economic growth will increase, and the world will become a planet of peace, prosperity and harmony.  Prosperity is definitely not achieved through taking, but rather by giving. We need to erase the outdated and harmful mindsets that individual wealth resulted from effectively competing for scarce sources. This very harmful frame of reference is unfortunately still perpetuated by ignorant publicity, as well as by misinformed teachers of the youth. The more people apply their creative minds and provide solutions to problems, the more wealth they will have.  In a free market environment, people are free to trade in solutions. The more we can trade, the more economic activity is happening, the higher the GNP per capita will be and a higher standard of living is the result. Therefore the more effective solutions to problems you could put on the market the more money you’ll make.  These solutions could be in the form of services, products or a combination.

We are all born as highly innovative beings who love to explore, invent and create.  We are also provided with numerous problems, screaming for innovative and creative solutions.  All we need is the freedom to apply our talents in order to be able to solve problems for one another.  We therefore need a climate of basic law and order on the one hand, but critically important on the other hand, we also need economic freedom.  It is during this creative problem-solving process that we normally experience self-actualisation, which is indeed also a form of happiness.  We are all blessed with different talents, begging to be utilized to the benefit of all on this planet. If we could all apply these gifts, we would not only be able to satisfy the ego, but also benefit one another in an optimum manner.  By using our God-given abilities to solve problems, we will, in effect, not only benefit man, but we will also benefit our planet as a whole. Human and environmental problems are one and the same.  Man needs the planet in order to survive.

The package needed to break the shackles of poverty is therefore a free market climate, entrepreneurial mindsets, and, very importantly, the basic knowledge and understanding of how wealth can be created for all. We have to understand that wealth is not scarce – it is simply a result of solutions to problems. We have to question our old beliefs regarding the source of wealth. Wealth is not a function of owning natural resources – wealth is a function of applying the mind, and creating solutions to problems.

The wonderful result, of developing our talents, for personal gain, is that in the process, we are also benefiting all.  We do however, need to rethink the way we educate our people.  We are generally caught up in the job-seeking mindsets, educated into us by school and tertiary syllabuses.  Education is still very much designed to the needs of the industrial era and needs to be redesigned.  As we highlighted in this article, is entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation not only the key to a better standard of living, but also the key to our future growth.

We need to create new mindsets in our students through the contents, and the way, we teach them.  The scarcity mindsets our generation are programmed with need to be replaced in our youth by the belief of abundance. In analysing the factors, which create economic growth and prosperity, we should realise that abundance for each and all is possible and achievable. There are, however, huge hurdles to overcome. The biggest challenges are to change the mindsets of educators, and the people designing educational courses. These people’s thinking is unfortunately moulded into job-seeking mindsets with limited entrepreneurial thinking or flair. It is therefore difficult to believe that government employees could be up to this mammoth task.