 How you doing? How are you? I'm good. Thank you. How about you? Fine. Thanks Really happy to have you here. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It's gonna be here. It would be nice if we could do this in person, but Maybe soon maybe soon. It is soon. You know, you're always welcome in Mexico City whenever you want. Thank you Well, you're first of all for the people that I am familiar with you and your work Can you tell us a little bit about you because as I was doing the introduction I would like I don't know how to Introduce Sharon because he's a writer. He's an entrepreneur. He's a businessman. He's a columnist. He's an activist He's everything he's Superman. I do a lot of things. I do a lot of things. No question Yeah, I mean, I was right, you know, I have dedicated the last 21 years really To promoting, you know, the ideas of iron rand and to her philosophy objectivism I did that for 17 years as the CEO of the Iron Man Institute and I'm still the chairman of the board over there And now I have a a podcast I Which you're on book show which you can find on YouTube and on itunes and on all the podcasting apps And I have You know, I'm active somewhat on social media. I'm a public speaker. I travel around the world when there's no COVID to give talks about Objectivism but morality of capitalism about Why cold white covert is proof that we should you know shrink governments and give them less power And how disastrous what they've done. I defend financial markets And financiers so I talk about a lot of different topics a wider way of topics But all from the perspective of the philosophy of objectivism so I speak around the world I do a lot of interviews And I read books. I read articles and I've got a bunch of different projects Promoting these kind of ideas and then on they kind of that's one part of my life. Another part of my life is I Before I took the job at the Iron Man Institute, I was a finance professor and while I was a finance professor I started a hedge fund and That was in 1998 and Originally we were working for another hedge fund, but now over the last 11 years we've had our own hedge fund and and so I'm a I'm the managing partner at a small hedge fund That that manages money So that keeps me busy. So I'm always kind of juggling Multiple things that I am doing And I live on Puerto Rico this strange Right Okay, we'll go to Puerto Rico right now, but first of all, I think that Many people aren't as familiar as they could or should be about objectivism. So For people that haven't heard the term why this objectivism and why do you? Support so much and spread the word on this kind of way of thinking Objectivism is a philosophy. It's a philosophy developed by Ion Rand in her books that maybe some of the listeners are familiar with Atlas Shrugged The fountain had the virtue of selfishness Capitalism not an ideal all books that by the way available in Spanish Everything's being translated and their websites in Spanish about her and her ideas and essays and everything's really been translated So I encourage people to read because whatever they hear from me. It's just gonna be you know a Very small Very small and I think Relatively uninteresting as compared to what she writes and and and the quality of her writing and the power of her writing Objectivism is a philosophy she defined for living on earth It's a philosophy that's supposed to guide you as an individual to live the best life that you can live While you're alive on this planet You only have one life You have one shot at it Ion Rand's philosophy is about making the most of that one life and She she basically starts With a the fundamental idea of you know how to deal with the world out there and and and you know Maybe this sounds obvious to many people but philosophically it's not she says the world is what it is. It is a things are what they are You don't make them up. They're not a product of your consciousness Wishing doesn't make things true praying doesn't make things true You know Being superstitious or any kind of mysticism doesn't make it true things are what they are the reality is what it is And you have the tool to know it and this is the tool you must cultivate if you want to live a good little life And that tool is reason you have a mind your mind is designed to give you Information about the world as it is so that you can figure out how to live in it So your basic means of survival your basic means of thriving in the world is your own Rational capacity its reason. It's not not emotion not revelation. Not any other kind of mechanism. No shortcuts knowledge Requires reasoning it requires observation of reality integration of that knowledge and and and understanding of the world and then of course It's only individuals who can reason Groups can't reason any more than groups can think or groups can eat Groups can eat for you and a group can't think for you You're your responsibility in life is to think and to figure out the best course for your life and then and therefore The human individual the individual each one of us is an end in itself Your purpose in your life is to live the best life for you using your mind to figure out the values necessary for your survival and for your Thriving and ultimately for your happiness that the moral purpose of life the moral purpose of life Is is to be happy. It's not to sacrifice and die. It's not to serve others It's not to live for the group or the collective or or or something external of you It's the moral purpose of your life is you it's your successful living and the only Political system that allows you the freedom to think for yourself and act for yourself and pursue The values that you deem necessary for your own happiness the only political system that allows that is a political system They respect rights individual rights freedom that respects freedom the freedom of an individual to make choices to act on them and That political system is capitalism It's the system in which government is limited to the protection of individual rights That's all it does and in which we are all free Free of courage and free of force free of authority to pursue our own life in our own values That's objectivism and why do I why do I actively pursue it? Well because it changed my life it and I want to live in a world with lots of objectivists I want to live in a world of happy people productive people a successful people Value you know people of values oriented people who love with passion People who love a life with passion who love the people they love with passion love they work with passion I think that's what it takes to be happy And I want to live in that world and the only way it's nobody else is doing the work The only way I can imagine living in that world is going out then trying to convince people to adopt these ideas What do you think is the line between? looking out for yourself and being selfish about and what Not about what others want, but about Holding others with your actions. Where is that land? Well, I don't think there is a line because I don't think hurting others not depends what you mean by hurting But but but physically let's say damaging others I don't think that's ever in your self-interest unless it's in self-defense and then you're not really hurting others You're just protecting yourself. So there is no my life is The purpose of my life is to live the best life. I can hurting other people doesn't help me Stealing from other people doesn't help me lying to other people doesn't help me not in the full sense not what you understand What human life requires human life requires me to be honest human life requires me not to steal Because I lose all self-esteem. Well, how can I regard myself? If I view productiveness if I view working having co-career Producing as valuable which I think every good human being should How can I respect myself and then if I go and steal and get stuff not by Producing but by stealing I lose self-esteem. I lose respect for myself and I lose the capacity to be happy So it's damaging to you to lies to you cheat and and you know use physical force against other people So that's the line the line is don't violate other people's rights Because it's not in your self-interest to violate other people's rights partially because it involves Something dishonest that you're doing partially or so involves. I want to live in a world in which my rights are not violated What kind of message am I sending the world if I violate other people's rights that I'm not serious That it's okay to violate my rights. So I want to relive in a world in which rights are not violated means I Should not I should not violate other's rights I Think that if someone kind of gives the idea or personifies the idea of globalization right now It's you because you were born in Israeli then you Move and work and studied in USA where you said you mentioned the importance of capitalism for your own political abuse Now you live in Puerto Rico How has the journey been for you? What have you learned? By being born in Israeli that you won't if you have been born in USA. We're at the same time What did you learn when you went to? USA that you won't learn in Israel and and so on and I know you give a public speaking So around the world and I'm guessing that gives you a little bit of taste of every single culture and mindset And their own views on political things economical things, etc I mean, it's hard to tell You know because life in Israel was very different than life in America and particularly growing up You know Israel was relatively poor Israel was very socialist. Israel was constantly under threat growing up there was wars all the time And terrorist attacks and and you grew up with that so I you know how did that shape me exactly? It's hard to tell and and those are kind of experiences that I wouldn't have had if I'd grown up in America I probably grew up faster matured faster And probably gained a great appreciation of my life because I'd lived under threat It also was a place in which you could grow up and Be left alone There wasn't a lot of what they call in America helicopter parents where the parents hovered over you and you would you know You got home and you went outside and you played with your friends and you saw your parents when he came to dinner Nobody asked you what you were doing where you were going, you know, there were no phones There was no you just did your thing and you there was a very independent childhood Which which was terrific, you know, and so it was a great it was actually a great place to grow up I would growing up there, but once I reached adulthood and realized that realized that It was very constraining in terms of the opportunities there was limited freedom and You know economically there weren't limited opportunities. It was small It's a small country, but also it's a very collectivist country And that means everybody's in your life and everybody's involved and everybody thinks you should sacrifice and give to them and devote your time to them and And I needed to get away from the collectivism. So to me leaving Israel was obvious Once I'd read Ayn Rand and decided my life was was what was meaningful because the collectivism was too bad It was too harsh. It wasn't the security. It wasn't a terrorism. It wasn't the war It wasn't even the socialism because that was in decline once I was an adult in Israel It was really the collectivism the sense that everybody's your cousin and everybody is in your life I love you know, so I went to America and I'm okay You have a you definitely have a sense of freedom that you don't have anywhere else even though In reality you have less freedom than you think and even though in reality the government is everywhere and regulating and controlling and listening and But there's still a sense of freedom in the United States. It certainly was when I moved a 33 years ago 33 and a half years ago now I think that freedom is slowly With a way I think that that sense that Americans have a freedom has slowly gone away, but it certainly used to be it's why people I'm a greater America. It's it's because it still is a land of opportunity. It still is relatively free It still has a certain vibe to it that's exciting and fun and and and where you can do you can do You can do things and you can achieve and you can succeed and you can build up build a life So yeah, I benefited enormously from living in America. It's it's I'm glad I made the move. I'm sad to see America in decline but look I'm a huge fan of Immigration because I I think everybody should have the opportunity When they grow up when when they grow up to decide, where do I want to live? What's what would be the best life that I could possibly have? You know in the world out there and why am I limited to where I was born, right? Where I was born might really be bad I didn't choose to be born in Israel. He didn't choose to be born in Mexico. I assume you were born in Mexico for you accident of you know accident it's a complete chance and So why not freedom means having choices and and not being forced so why shouldn't people be able to Decide my life would be better off In X place and and that's got a world ultimately I'd like to live in you know It was the world to some extent in 19th century you could move around there were no passports You could go anywhere That's how America was settled millions and millions of millions of people came to America Nobody nobody stopped them nobody sent them back unless they were sick or something And and I think that is that's a beautiful thing and I think globalization is Amazing the fact that I can buy products or made Anywhere in the world that I can in a sense trade with people everywhere We have division of labor what Adam Smith talked about 250 years ago. We now have on a global scale We have hundreds of millions of people participating in the division of labor It's just it's just fantastic. There's you know, and it's the more of that we have the better off everybody is You have many professions and I'm guessing each one helping you Build some skills that help you in the next one and not so on or I don't know if you juggles Many of them at the same time But since we're talking about doing what makes you happy and everything What's the profession that you think has made you happiest doing at the time? Well, it's what I do today. I mean, I love what I do today. I I'm independent I get to I Get to promote I rinse ideas but without having to manage people in an organization and all of that I can just do it in my way. I get I get to travel around the world talking to people and Meeting people. I mean, that's how we met. I was in Mexico City two or three years ago. I can't remember now and with glory alvarez, of course and and Yeah, and You know and and so I get to meet amazing people I get to do amazing things I get a sit here in my home Puerto Rico and and talk and get in a sense get paid for that Which is great and then of course I can You know, I also have my financial side where I can Do interesting things in in financial markets and get get compensated for that. So right now my life is kind of As good as it gets in a sense because I do what I want to do. I don't have to do things. I don't want to do I You know, my income is good from all the different things that I do and And it's and you know, it's it's fun. It's it's exciting You were talking about immigration and the fact that as you mentioned, but you don't choose where you Are born, but maybe we should give people the choice to choose where they want to live In your experience and as an immigrant yourself What does immigration and what does the mix of different cultures different races different? mindsets Bring together to enable that Just being everyone from the same place with the same contest with the same experiences just doesn't Well, I mean I think in the end it really depends, right? So it immigration is a plus if The the the culture of the place you're immigrating to The fundamental values of it that made it attractive to begin with are Maintained and sustained that is if the people who come Embrace the melting pot in American in American terminology embrace the idea that they will accept the culture They will embrace the the principles that made it and then bring their own flavor to it Which I think they do so, you know, obviously the food is better, right? And and and you get you get Much more, but it's also that people do bring different perspectives. They bring a different ideas More people is always better in a sense than less people because they're more minds Thinking about how to solve problems if they have different experiences. They might bring Different approaches to solving a problem than maybe You know, the people who are part of the status quo, you know, can't think outside of a particular box You know, they also bring energy and experiments So immigrants often are passionate about the things that make a place special More than the people who grew up with it. It kind of take it for granted I think I have a better appreciation for American history for American freedom for the American founding fathers for the American Constitution What makes America great? Then 90% of Americans because I know what alternative is, you know, in a sense that they don't I've studied the history and the founding of this of the country because I Know again, I know the alternatives So I'm interested in what made America special and I know it's special I think a lot of Americans don't know it's special. This is what they grew up with that patriotic, but it's empty You know, I'm patriotic because I really believe in the country and I think it's a it's a great country For reasons that have to do with how it was founded and kind of how it evolved So I think immigrants bring energy being excitement. I mean immigrants are typically entrepreneurs Um, they typically care about education so their kids get educated and the kids do well And they and they typically come because they want Let's say to America because they want the freedom that American represents and they become it, you know And I think I think if America stood for something immigrants would Embrace that and be even more passionate about it than Americans The challenge today is not immigrants the challenge to American culture today is not immigrants The challenge to American culture today is Americans John you started in the Inran Institute because You love the Inran philosophies and her books and everything about it But now you are a writer yourself. What can you tell us about your books about how they represent your way of thinking? Sure, so I have three books all co-authored with Don Watkins who worked with me at the Inran Institute Well really four books One of them with Bradley Thompson who is a professor at Clemson University But the three books with Don which I think represent more of my thinking Books that reflect kind of my approach To I know it's ideas and that is applying them to particular areas That are important to me and that I Have an understanding of so the first book is really focused on capitalism on business and capitalism on What are the important ideas from? Objectivism to have if we want to hold if we want to change the culture if we want to shrink government if we Want to limit up the politicians power? So it's really it's called free market revolution how Inran's ideas can can you know Limit big government right it can limit the government it can shrink the government and So that's that's a book that deals more with politics and the application of these ideas to politics The second book is equal is unfair Which came from the horror that I had in realizing that Americans were coming to hate the idea of inequality for the first time and and how the left was using inequality as this issue to try to Divide Americans and try to try to drive a socialist left of this leftist agenda Into the American culture and I wrote that in response really Advocating for American kind of style individualism and how individualism is opposed To any limits on inequality and why inequality if it arises out of freedom If it arises out of the fact that we have different talents and different skills and different abilities and different interests and different passions and Is great, I mean there's nothing wrong with inequality. So that's equal is unfair that you can see back there and then After that wrote a book called the market finance Which is really combined it's kind of my my work in the financial markets with my work on philosophy On the philosophy of vinerand and really is a moral defense of an industry that I love and an industry that I think is maligned and often Attacked and blamed for all the bad things in the world And I think finance is a heroic field and so it's a it's a book really focused on that On bringing this philosophy of individualism reason Egoism and capitalism to the topic of financiers and the fourth book which I wrote with Bradley Thompson Was really an attack on neoconservatism. So again a political book about a particular political ideology Which I think particularly post 9 11 was particularly influential in america and very damaging to america Uh and and really resulted in some really really bad policies. So, um, we wrote a book to To attack that so it's more at the political economic level But always bringing in morality always making the argument that What's really important in life is ethics. It's it's the code of value by which you live and and that really shapes politics economics And and everything really that happens in the world out there And if we don't have a proper moral code And and this is kind of my disagreement with other free market thinkers If we don't have a proper moral code, we will never get freedom. We will never get capitalism capitalism depends on people embracing A morality of egoism and as long as they don't forget about it capitalism will never be successful in in terms of People adopting it. What do you think? and a country that's In dispute right now like you say with evolution I'm questioning of what capitalism is or should be a do you think we're on the Age of devolution of capitalism that that will be A new step a new progress in that or it will be more like going back to the original values of it If you have to take a guess Well, I don't know what you mean by evolution of capitalism. I think that we are moving away from capitalism I I think we don't have capitalism today where we have some mixed economy Some elements of capitalism or freedom some elements of statism a lot of statism And that mixture is unstable It's always things are always moving because there are too many pressures on this mixture. It doesn't it can't stay It either becomes complete statism or it becomes complete capitalism And right now we're moving towards more statism So in my view, it's not an evolution of capitalism The political economic system in the united states is evolving But it's evolving towards less capitalism more authoritarianism more government control And and and more statism whether it's fascism or socialism That's why I think we're heading it's going to be very difficult to turn this around And and it's very depressing in that sense But it doesn't seem to be any real Popular support today in america for individualism and capitalism As an entrepreneur yourself How has entrepreneurship evolved in usa? Since you started what opportunities do you think Have been close to entrepreneurs right now and what opportunities do you think that current entrepreneurs have that That entrepreneurs from before will have killed for I mean, I think that a knowledge about entrepreneurship has increased a lot There's there's a lot of knowledge a lot of research a lot of books a lot of courses a lot of degrees you can get in entrepreneurship I mean, so it's there's a lot more knowledge about how to start a business. What are the steps to take? Um and and what are the obstacles and what are the what are the challenges that you're going to face? So, um certainly You know That that exists In in some ways it's easier to start a business today because there's lots of capital So there's a whole industry to support entrepreneurs think venture capitalists I mean when I moved to the us in 87 the venture capitalist community was robust, but it was Really just starting. I mean venture capital is a new area. It started in the 70s and and and were 80s kind of was maturing but today The hundreds of venture capitalists are very good. They're good at what they do They they're good at identifying great companies So capital is more available And and even if you're young and inexperienced they are now Venture capitalists that specialize in funding young and inexperienced entrepreneurs So so it's in that sense. It's it's much much easier to raise capital But it's also interesting that entrepreneurs today, particularly in technology You don't need a lot of capital because uh much of what you do has You know, you can put on the cloud. You you don't have to buy a lot of hard way you It's it's much much easier to to Get a company off the ground get a product into the marketplace in the technology space today than it was 20 30 years ago So entrepreneurship, there's more knowledge more capital And and it's cheaper to do I mean, I'd say on the on the downside What's what's worse is there's more regulations more controls more avenues blocked more government intervention um Then there was 30 40 50 years ago, so but overall I still think that the There's no shortage of opportunities For entrepreneurs who have ideas who are willing to work hard and willing to really Default their life to succeeding. There's no limit to the opportunities that they have even today Yeah, and to start off in this up to every guest in the keep it up show We ask them to to grab it up Treat us and treat us for entrepreneurs Basically, three things that they should do and three things that they shouldn't do What are your three dos and three downs? Well, the the I'd say the first do is do it You know, don't sit on your hands Don't wait for somebody else Take your ownership over your own life and your own career and and just go and do it um So I'd say I'd say that's that is uh number one You know the other the others are Be smart about think You know use your mind Be passionate but always remember that you're going to be successful if you think it through and when you act just an emotion That's when you get on trouble. So so I have a plan Think it through figure out What you want to achieve and what the path? You're going to and then don't be afraid uh, don't be afraid to ask um for Advice help capital. I know a lot of entrepreneurs to say, I you know, I don't want to get to capital Are they going to tell me what to do? Yeah But they're also going to bring Knowledge and experience that particularly for first-time entrepreneurs. You just don't have So so so do it and and and and you know go for it I'd say in terms of don't is the the main one is don't be afraid to fail Don't be afraid to fail a failure is part of being an entrepreneur Every great entrepreneur has failed And uh, but have the right approach to failure You know failure should be a learning opportunity should be an opportunity to figure out How to do it better next time? You know, don't listen other don't listen to other people against your judgment at the end of the day Follow your dreams and follow your judgment Right. So get advice talk to other people Um in fight guidance, but at the end of the day you have to make the decisions for yourself. So don't Don't sell out on your principles Um, yeah, and don't give up. It's going to be hard work It's going to be hard work this And and be ready for that and and don't give up when you When you face the obstacles the obstacles can be You know can be overcome Johnny if anyone wanted to learn a little bit about you With your books Watch your show. How can they find you on social media? Sure? So I have a website you run bookshow.com. I'm on social media on facebook Just put my name in and on twitter And I think on any other platform as well, but those are the two that I mainly use um, I have um My show is on primarily on youtube You can go to your ron show on youtube And you can subscribe there and and that's great. Uh, I have I do four sometimes five shows a week So there's tons of content all my lectures are up there all my interviews are up there So there's a ton of content Hundreds maybe thousands by this point of videos long and short and every variety possible Um, and of course those of you interested in ayn ran go to ayn ran dot org Which is the ayn ran institute website and and and go get her books At the shrugged and the fountain head and read them and you can find all my books on amazon So I just put my name on amazon and you will find them Well, yeah, and I want to thank you a lot for your time We're really glad to have you here and as we say on this program keep it up. Thank you. I appreciate it