 You have to unleash the forces of entrepreneurship, which means that you have to allow individuals to be free. My name is Ben Cloutse. I'm the Director of Academic Outreach at the Mercator Center at George Mason University. I grew up in Ghana, West Africa. Growing up, I saw my dad in many different forms. My dad is an entrepreneur, but he grew up really poor. He was the first of six brothers, didn't have the resources to study. So at some point, he dropped out of school. But his one true passion, his one desire, was to be an entrepreneur. So in his 20s, he walked into a bank and borrowed his first capital to start his business. He built a factory, long story short, and employed hundreds of people, providing them with an opportunity to also make ends meet. But his dream was nearly shattered as Ghana went through some political turmoil. We gained independence in 1957 and quickly moved towards socialism. And shortly after that, we had successive coups. So when my father was trying to build his business, we were under a military rule. Given that their philosophy was primarily socialist and, to a certain extent, Marxist, they looked at businesses and entrepreneurs very skeptically. So my dad was one of the people who was summoned to the military to answer many questions about why he has what he has and why he does what he does and whether or not he was taking advantage of his wage earners. And his business was nearly taken away from him. This episode went on for a while in the country until eventually the leaders of the country realized that the economy was plunging and plunging deeper and deeper into poverty. Eventually, some things began to turn around. And Ghana, that had been under socialist rule for a long time, they began to privatize the fisheries, the telecommunications industry, and we saw the economy bounce back to life. All these things taught me an important lesson. For a country to become prosperous, you have to unleash the forces of entrepreneurship, which means that you have to allow individuals to be free. This really influenced my thinking about economics, my thinking about the economy and why I work at Mercators right now because our mission is really advancing ideas for a free society, which leads to entrepreneurship, to innovation and to prosperity and human flourishing in the long run. And I am contributing in my own small way in advancing these ideas. That is why I love and enjoy working at Mercators.