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(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Listen to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, or former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, and you’ll see them attacking billionaire businessmen, and their Twitter followers cheer. It is taken that such businessmen are disdainful, not bad.
But I have the opposite view.
I am filled with admiration when I think of billionaires who have made their fortunes through creativity and unique skills. Just as we admire world-class athletes for their achievements, I admire the GOATs of the business world for their extraordinary accomplishments.
It is common for such billionaires and famous athletes to do their jobs at a higher level. They are the best in the world at what they do, and only a very small number of people reach their level of performance. LeBron James, Tom Brady and Lionel Messi are some of the greatest in history. We know little about how they achieve sporting excellence—continual improvement, persistence, exceptional skills—and are therefore a source of inspiration for millions of people. Similarly, I have equal admiration for Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos for their excellence in the business world.
When I watched the documentary The Last Dance, I was amazed at how Michael Jordan rose to the top of professional basketball and built his career from the ground up. I had the same reaction when I read about Jobs. He rose to the top of the business world by founding Apple with Steve Woznick in his garage with very little money. Today, Apple is worth over $2 trillion. He was able to create a unique company that continued to grow long after Jobs died.
iPhone has brought great value to my life. It allows me to quickly connect with family and friends around the world, quickly access any information I want, work and play with a device that fits in my pocket, and more. The iPhone pioneered new cell phones and revolutionized the way we use data by changing the way we collect, create, and transmit it. It’s hard to overstate the impact of Jobs’ creativity on the world, just as it’s hard to overstate Jordan’s profound impact on basketball and the millions of people he inspired during his career.
Building a company like Apple took extraordinary intelligence, independent vision, creativity and business acumen from Jobs. Hiring the right people to do the technical work to build Apple’s technology requires an extraordinary mind. When I read about Jobs’ process, or watch his presentations, I can’t help but admire his passion, tenacity and determination to bring his vision to life. To me, watching the mind work at that level is more interesting and awe-inspiring than watching Messi score on 107 minutes in the World Cup final.
Another demon-backed businessman is Jeff Bezos, who built Amazon from the ground up with an initial investment of $10,000 of his own money. Amazon is now worth over a trillion dollars. Without Bezos’ unique vision, logistical prowess, and independent mindset, he couldn’t have turned an online used bookstore into the largest online retailer in history with more than a million employees — just like Tom Brady couldn’t have won so many Super Bowls about the game of football and his work ethic. History without advanced understanding.
Bezos’ inventions have made my life so much better: I usually don’t have to go out to many different stores to buy the things I want, Amazon ships one or two days later – and I get my groceries delivered to my door every week from Amazon’s grocery delivery service. Bezos has saved me a lot of time with the company – freeing me up to work, play or spend time with the people I love.
There is something of great value in watching human beings perform at their best—whether they are sporting goats or titans of industry. When I see a famous athlete working out, it inspires me to go a little harder in the gym, eat a little better, take better care of my body. I will never be a professional athlete, but with the right work and motivation, I can do the best I can to stay healthy and perform to the best of my ability. When I see an elite business person at work and see and use their creativity, I am motivated to work a little harder, to be a little more productive, to be more ambitious. I may never be a billionaire, but with the right motivation I can be my best and most productive self.
James, Brady and Messi constantly push the limits of what is possible in their sport. James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, Brady has won Super Bowls, and Messi himself holds many records. Like them, Bezos, Jobs and other entrepreneurs will push forward technological progress and generate new life-enhancing values at a scale that is frightening.
When they are taken for granted, or worse, attacked by the sympathies of Robert Reich and the like, I can’t help but think that this is a real injustice: they deserve respect and recognition for the work they do. No one can argue that James, Brady or Messi deserve credit for their work. Why don’t effective geniuses get the same treatment? There is much to admire about the success these billionaire businessmen have achieved in their careers and the virtues they have shown to do so.
Agustina Vergara Cid is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. You can follow her on Twitter @agustinavcid
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