by Yanik Silver
I just visited the blog linked in the title because I subscribe to an Internet marketing news service and the title intrigued me. If anyone knows anything at all about Internet marketing, they are familiar with the name Yanik Silver. He is not only a guru, but a traditional guru who has made one millionaire after another. I have studied some of his work as part of my own education.
Imagine how flabbergasted I was to see a 15 minute video on his blog by a guy named Jon Butcher talking about the morality of capitalism and how entrepreneurs need to defend themselves in moral terms. The discourse was pure Rand.
Then I was even more flabbergasted to read that this guy had presented this talk to Sir Richard Branson during a Virgin Unite brainstorming session and the whole entourage was strongly impacted at Virgin.
And to cap it off, look at what Yanik posted right after the video:
QUOTE(Yanik Silver)
Additionally, as I was thinking about this topic I also came across the transcript of "Francisco's Money Speech" from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shurgged" (one of my all-time most influential books). I think it's especially pertinent.
"…If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality. Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents…"
You can read the whole speech here.
"…If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality. Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents…"
You can read the whole speech here.
I have been studying Yanik as one guru among several I admire. I believe I may do a reevaluation about which direction I will be heading.
This made my day. I even posted on his blog. (At this exact moment, my comment is awaiting moderation.) Here is what I wrote over there:
QUOTE(Me)
Yanik,
I am new to Internet Marketing and you are one of the people I have been looking up to for inspiration. I got here through the normal buzz. I was enormously surprised and pleased to see you reference Francisco's speech in Atlas Shrugged and outright say that Atlas is one of your favorite books.
I run a website called Objectivist Living devoted to studying Rand's ideas. When I started listening to Jon Butcher's video, my jaw dropped. I have devoured a truckload of material on Internet marketing over the last year and I have not heard anyone within the Internet marketing world endorse the morality of capitalism explicitly like Jon did.
Will wonders never cease…
I am going to post about this to my neck of the Objectivist world.
I am new to Internet Marketing and you are one of the people I have been looking up to for inspiration. I got here through the normal buzz. I was enormously surprised and pleased to see you reference Francisco's speech in Atlas Shrugged and outright say that Atlas is one of your favorite books.
I run a website called Objectivist Living devoted to studying Rand's ideas. When I started listening to Jon Butcher's video, my jaw dropped. I have devoured a truckload of material on Internet marketing over the last year and I have not heard anyone within the Internet marketing world endorse the morality of capitalism explicitly like Jon did.
Will wonders never cease…
I am going to post about this to my neck of the Objectivist world.
This is excellent news. Excellent...
Michael