The Visionary Versus the Industrialist

Entrepreneurs come in two forms.

They are either visionaries or they are industrialists.

Visionaries create. Industrialists capitalize on a visionary’s creation.

Visionaries are inspired by the product whereas industrialists are driven by profits.

Despite Microsoft going public years after Apple, Bill Gates became a billionaire much earlier than Steve Jobs. Jobs was busy envisioning and building products that people wouldn’t come to realize they needed until some day in the future – all the while Gates was focused on fulfilling immediate market needs and generating short term profits.

It is also not uncommon for visionaries to find themselves being exploited by industrialists.

An industrialist can pirate a visionary’s invention. He can even make off with his money. But there is one thing that the visionary possesses that is un-plunderable – his ability to create.

Creativity is an innate characteristic that cannot be acquired. One is either born with it or he is not.

It reminds me of a quote by Nikola Tesla, “I don’t care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don’t have any of their own.”

Industrialists may have bigger bank accounts and larger companies, but the visionary owns something much more valuable and something that money can never buy: an endless pool of ideas and ingenuity.

And nothing is as grand as the innovation gifted to society by the visionary.

Neither the industrialist, nor civilization, can survive without the visionary.

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