An Entrepreneur Working From the Bottom Up

When thinking about the problems and complexities of our economy today, it is interesting to take a look at businessmen in less developed countries in order to see their views about business, given the context of a relatively blank slate, where the possibilities are more open.

The landscape of our own economy is somewhat different because a certain system is already set in place. This system thrives on a particular model of hyper competition and consumption, and since our current economy has been in the making for several generations, it is sometimes harder to fathom major change.  Although entrepreneurs and consumers are aware of the perils of our current system, our willingness to trade in our current lifestyle is another story.

For these reasons, it is refreshing to hear business ideals from an entrepreneur in a country where such a defined "system" is not necessarily set in place. This article Turning Rwanda's rivers into renewable energy gives the reader a glimpse of this unique perspective.

"And how would he describe a good business person?

"When people look at businessmen, they look at money, but I think money is not what makes the person," he said.

"A business, it's working with the people. It's making life easier for others. A good businessman is the one who looks at his neighbours, at his countrymen, at the world," he explained.

"It would be meaningless if I were rich and I'm surrounded by poor people. A good businessman is one who looks first on others before he looks after himself.'"

"Gregory Tayi says that he was forced into business"

Perhaps when trying to find solutions and figure out our own economic ideals, it is necessary to mentally remove ourselves as much as possible from the paradigm that we are used to. If we take a step back and imagine how we would envision an economy starting more or less from scratch, we may be closer to figuring out where we should be, and where we need to start heading.