Day 5 Quote 4: The Engine Which Drives Enterprise Is Not Thrift, But Profit

Quote 4: The Engine Which Drives Enterprise Is Not Thrift, But Profit

 – John Maynard Keynes

I find it amazing that even though I’m just in my 4^th quote, everything is actually very familiar to me. The quotes seem to share a common language that I understand.

It’s much similar to the “Parable of the Talents (Matt 25: 14-30).” Three servants were given talents by their master. After a period of time, their master summoned them again. He [master] was very pleased to see that the 1^st and 2^nd servant increased their talents. However, to his dismay, the third servant kept his talent and didn’t do anything to increase or use it. He just buried it.

Here’s the basic moral lesson:

If you have a talent [money], don’t keep it to yourself…Use it! Invest it! Grow it!

Going back to what I said earlier that these quotes all seem to share a common language. Much similar to the three servants, these quotes [talents] are given to us not to be kept or hidden but to be used.  There’s a lot of information available in the world; what sets people apart from each other is how they use these information. Quotes are a perfect embodiment of this. It [quote] speaks to us and is made available to us…but the manner of how we understand, use and apply it will definitely vary. You may have all the information in the world but if you just ignore it and don’t do anything about it…I have one thing to say to you:

You’re useless!

This is just what the quote says…thrift or savings may be good since it gives you a safety net during times of trouble; but, looking at the bigger picture, if you keep saving and saving…you actually end up with nothing. If what you have now is similar to what you have 3 years ago, you actually have nothing. Nothing in a sense that you didn’t do anything to improve yourself…again, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

That’s why profits are the engine that drives enterprise… because they constantly have to stay competitive and ahead of the pack, there is little room, if not zero, for doing nothing with the resources that are given to them.

I am not discouraging you from saving. I still save. Saving is good; but the thing here is that you shouldn't just keep saving your resources (money). You should constantly look for ways to make it grow. Before, I thought that if I wanted to buy something that is expensive, I would need to save up on my allowance. This is a very common practice.We save up our money to be able to buy something that costs more than what we already have. A car for example. For me, I want to buy a mini cooper (similar to the ones they use it the Italian Job movie) which costs around $30,000.

$30,000 is roughly around P 1.3M with a DP of 20%. Basically, I'll be needing around 260,000 just for the DP. If I save 10,000 of my salary per month, it will take me around 26 months or a little bit over two years. But, what if instead of just saving my salary per month, I invest a portion of it (if not the entire thing) on something that will give me profit. If I have a good investment portfolio and if the odds are with me, I can get P260,000 in less than two years. See the point?!

Simple tip: Always look for ways to make a profit given what you have!