 Good morning everybody. Thanks for being here. I'm not a professor. I Don't have a coat because my wife can't stand the aggressive air conditioning here in Florida She's wearing it. I like you to help us and and consider a Third major footprint for the Muses Institute in advancing Liberty and when I say that I think of the first one as the academic economics project So presciently started by Lou 30 odd years ago and led by dr. Solano and has made such fantastic Progresses these gentlemen can attest to The second is the libertarian project, which is all of us right trying to advance Libertarian thought and libertarian principles in every way that we can We think there's a possibility for another very large audience and That's the business audience so we started a project called economics for business and The idea is to build that big footprint in the business world thinking of everybody in business from an individual contractor to a large corporation anybody involved in entrepreneurship which is the creation of new value for for people and We started out with the idea that We would Austrian eyes the business discipline meaning in the universities in business schools and try to change that Industrial age thinking about central control and and top-down strategy and financial controls and substitute subjective value and consumer sovereignty and Entrepreneurship and we've made great great progress there, too As as these two professors and many others have established in their positions in business schools So we're making progress there, but then we said hey we can go further than that we can Austrian eyes business practice We can look at what we call the middle class of business everybody except the giant corporations any business with an employee base of three to five hundred that's our middle class of business and Expand the idea of Austrianism and Austrian economics there focusing on Customers first on creating value on entrepreneurship and less of the Central control and bureaucracy and so on that detracts from from creating value And then we said we can go even further we can build an entrepreneurial society So going beyond business to think about the entrepreneurial ethic as one that we can imbue in the whole of society and an entrepreneurial society would be characterized by value Entrepreneurs create value for other people they try to improve other people's lives to get a reward from the marketplace for doing that That's a great spirit for an entrepreneurial society The tool for that is empathy Understanding somebody else's thinking somebody else's mentality somebody else's need and trying to meet that need so that empathetic spirit is imbued in entrepreneurship It's collaborative All the same sane thinking about competition as red in tooth and claw I've got to kill you to get ahead is a hundred percent wrong the entrepreneurial society is Collaborative and trying to raise the the benefits for everybody. Let's all figure out. What's the best way to do this? It's a collaborative undertaking and in society. It's ethical Dr. Byland has written very convincingly about what he calls the ethic of entrepreneurship It's a service ethic. That's that that would be the way that an entrepreneurial society would think It would have low time preference and that dr. Hoppe says that's the the one prime need of Civilization is developing the low time preference and that's what entrepreneurs do They take time to find out what customers need They take time to build the production capability to deliver on that need and they get their reward sometime in the future They sacrifice the present in order for In order to build a better future and so we have that that low time preference. It's creative It's it's creating new ideas new thoughts innovations and so on and it's a political Entrepreneurs have no time for politics. They're trying to build businesses So this idea comes right from our very core It comes from human action and you could pick many quotes out of human action to To capture the thought One of the quotes that we all like and we quote a lot is from Ludwig von Mises talk talking about entrepreneurship as the driving force the driving force of The market society and the market society is what we're talking about the free market Without intervention without coercion without government control the driving force So if we can develop entrepreneurship in that sense, we will will create a wonderful society and in fact another quote that's a particular favorite of mine is from Dr. Hazos who were to the Soto Who said this the fairest society is? The one which most energetically promotes the entrepreneurial creativity of all its members that's from An essay called the theory of dynamic efficiency, which I recommend to you all if you haven't read read it So think of a couple words in that fairest we can own the idea of fair We can own justice and his way of defining that is to say that we have private property And if the society is fair it will enable us to use our private property to serve others and to get the market Reward for doing so and to keep that reward. That's that's the fairness It's the anti redistributive kind of approach Entrepreneurial creativity of all its members. We're all creative. We all have ideas. We'll have thoughts We all have that that that kind of capability and so that's the the vision of the entrepreneurial society and So we're with the economics of business project. We're trying to create a kind of infrastructure for that and We're trying to change an orientation. So instead of being Dependent instead of being submissive the orientation would be much more of this creativity and this this serving others self-reliance and the ability to to create and build There's three principles for doing that there's knowledge and obviously the Mises Institute has all the knowledge in the world about Austrian economics and how we can apply that and how to build businesses and how to build entrepreneurship and how to be creative We've tried to add some tools Here's how to do this. He's where to start. He's the next step and and so on We're we're building those tools and a lot of potential for those and build a community in the business world of People getting together and trying to raise the spirit of entrepreneurship. Have you tried this? Have you done that? I've got this problem. Help me out. We'll build that that community. So I'm hoping that I can show a video now of the current state of our website Welcome fellow Mises Institute supporters those of you here today as well as those who are joining us online I'm Ricky Porco and today. I'm going to take you on a quick tour of the economics for business platform The goal for our project is to Austrian eyes the entrepreneurial journey We want to enable people in all realms of business to be more entrepreneurial and especially more Austrian To do that we're bringing knowledge tools and community together under one Austrian economics powered umbrella the e4b platform Our approach centers around the entrepreneurial GPS or eGPS as we call it a Proprietary structure we've created to help organize the entrepreneurial journey and all of the activities skills and knowledge contained within It's five stages from imagination to management and growth and it's designed to get people oriented within our library of entrepreneurial content And to better match them with the right tools information or people that might help them achieve specific goals Each stage of the eGPS has its own page on the platform where various types of content like videos tools podcasts Research papers and others are aggregated in order to give the entrepreneur a focused view of Resources that are available to them and might be valuable to them at this particular moment in time Platform users can recalibrate their eGPS so that each time they log into the platform They're met with a new opportunity to discover tools and content tailored to their stage in the entrepreneurial journey And our premise is very action oriented so we emphasize actionable tools every chance we can on the platform We also highlight the individuals who helped create these tools One of the ways is with profiles that invite opportunity for connection and mentorship And it also gives tool and content creators the ability to showcase their contributions to our economics for business library So thanks for taking a quick tour of economics for business with me If you're interested in hearing more about the platform or joining our beta test Shoot me an email at rickieatmesis.org and we'll get you added to the list Thanks again fellow institute supporters That was Ricky Porco has been one of our tremendous supporters in helping us build this I want to mention Wesley Downs who is the project leader at the Mises Institute in helping us build this It's in beta test right now and we hope to get it ready for full distribution very quickly So I've used my 10 minutes I'm going to hand over to my good friend Pear right to see you next I can go. I got the mic First I want to thank Hunter and acknowledge his fantastic leadership in being the driving force behind this project Which is so important not only for helping entrepreneurs be better entrepreneurs But also for in ways that are both explicit and also more implicit and subtle Promoting the great message of liberty and freedom that unites you know all of us here this weekend I just want to touch on that point a little bit. So You know if you ask In what ways can entrepreneurship promote liberty and a better society improvements in human well-being and so forth Well, I mean the the more obvious way is the practical one the practice of entrepreneurship Of course involves as as Mises said You know producing entrepreneurs creating producing Distributing goods and services to the market that improve consumer well-being. I mean that's what entrepreneurs do they compete against each other cooperating with other people throughout the supply chain and so forth to create value to combine and recombine Productive factors resources, you know in a world of uncertainty and positive time preference and so forth Services that consumers will buy right so we're all made better off of course by entrepreneurship being done and being done well Clearly there's a role for the Austrian school and the Mises community to help entrepreneur do what they do better You know there's also something that we hear about a lot today is the notion that you know how do we deal with all these Horrible problems that we're talking about what's our strategy for making the world a better place aside from entrepreneurs just being entrepreneurs in general You also hear a lot about entrepreneurship as a way of creating sort of parallel or alternative Structures institutions networks organizations that allow us to bypass At least partially the the unjust inefficient, you know oppressive institutions that we that we have in our world today We just turned in the previous panel about education right so we can try to reform the existing universities including the state owned state subsidized universities Or we can try to create our our own set of educational institutions the Mises Institute of course is one of those I view Lou Rockwell as one of the great intellectual entrepreneurs of the last I don't know 50 years right in creating an organization that does education and outreach and supports research and so forth You might think about you know I'm sure there are plenty of people in the room who are who are into crypto right you can think of crypto as a private Commercial sort of free market alternative to the existing part of the financial system and ways that we can write and execute smart contracts and so forth Right so in lots of different sectors you can say well we if we can't reform you know the legal system we can create our own private alternatives through the practice of entrepreneurship Entrepreneurs are doing exactly that so that's one reason to be optimistic about the role of entrepreneurship in promoting liberty freedom and a better society There's another aspect of this too however which is more of an education and outreach mission so I teach entrepreneurship at a university at Baylor University I bet Pear who also teaches entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State feels the same way we have lots of students in our programs we have a major in entrepreneurship Lots of students are taking those classes pursuing that major because they want to learn how to be better entrepreneurs they want to be more successful in their chosen A lot of work they want to be the next Steve Jobs Bill Gates you know fill in the blank fantastic we're delighted to have those students in our courses participating in our programs However probably you know not that many students and the data suggests that only a small number of students actually you know start a successful venture while they're in school Or even within a few years out of school in the US it's mostly older people it's mostly middle aged people who are successful first time entrepreneurs and successful serial entrepreneurs So you know why do we have all these programs and courses well I have often advocated though I haven't yet been successful Making an entrepreneurship course be a requirement for every student at the university People say well why do you need that I mean what about the ones who are going to you know work for a big corporation or what about the ones who want to go to law school or whatever Look you know to get a well rounded education and traditional liberal arts education everyone has to take a course in music appreciation Right even if you're not a professional musician even if you're not a concert pianist or a rock and roll star or whatever You know you should know who Mozart was you should know what why Beethoven is considered a great composer I nowadays I guess you should know who Nobel laureate Bob Dylan was right and so forth You know to be a well educated person your life will be better if you understand what music is how it works A little bit about music theory and notes and scales a little bit about music history you know kind of a way to make you understand and appreciate the value of music Even if you yourself are not a producer of music even if you can't sing a lick you should still know something about it In my view entrepreneurship is the same way everyone should take a course in entrepreneurship appreciation So that they understand what entrepreneurs do why entrepreneurship is so important in a free society you know exactly what why how is it that entrepreneurs as we're discussing You know our creating products and services and alternative institutions you know to make our lives better that way people will be better informed They'll be able to think clearly about more clearly about policy right when we think about all the things that government does to make entrepreneurship more difficult To hinder and stymie innovators and creators and disruptors and so forth it would be easier to get support for better policies you know leaving entrepreneurs alone If people understood that entrepreneurship is the driving force and you better not mess it up right how does that relate to our platform Well look we're getting practical people to think more about the kind of underpinnings and wait a minute this website really helped me solve some problem that my business had Who did you say you people were again? What is this? Misey? Me? Mises? What is that? What is Austrian? Australian you know what does that mean? We get them you know we sort of draw them in to thinking about sort of this world view and even you know the more that we can promote entrepreneurship as a positive good You know from there it's just one step further to say oh you like entrepreneurship you know you like the job that you have the work that you do or you appreciate the entrepreneurial innovation of somebody else You want to keep that? Okay well let us explain what kind of you know policies and institutions and mindset ways of thinking are necessary for us to keep it Right you know there's that famous line this is Patrick Newman this is Patrick Newman thing you know was it now I've forgotten was it Jefferson or no I think it was Ben Franklin You know famously asked by some constituent or some community member after the constitutional convention you know what have you guys done what have you created for us what have you made And his answer I guess is probably something that is attributed to him but maybe it's like you know that Abraham Lincoln quote you know don't believe everything you read on the internet Signed Abraham Lincoln the famous line is you know we've given you what we have now is a republic if you can keep it Okay we can argue about whether it really was a republic is didn't take long for it to turn into an empire but the point is you know entrepreneurs are giving you an entrepreneurial market society but we've got to keep it We've got to not destroy it right which is what many of the people in power would like to do so the more we can get everyone thinking about understanding being excited about entrepreneurship the better we as a society will be And I think this platform goes a long way in you know pushing us toward that goal So I wanted to direct your attention to the title of this panel it's not entrepreneurship and the state and it's not entrepreneurship with the state it's not even entrepreneurship despite the state It's entrepreneurship versus the state okay and there's a reason for that because entrepreneurship is a good means and I'll get back to this in my talk this afternoon for how to get rid of or rather smash the state And doing it bottom up so what I mean by that is that I typically think of entrepreneurship as or entrepreneurs as those who create our tomorrow They're in the business of creating the products and services as Peter mentioned and also the solutions and really the structure of society tomorrow What tomorrow looks like is what entrepreneurs feel like creating for us and what is successful is what we respond to but we don't actually know what we want until we see it And Henry Ford I'm also going to use a quote that it was never actually said just like Peter and Patrick Henry Ford never said that had I asked my customers what they wanted they would have said faster horses He didn't produce faster horses because he realized that they would probably better off with something else an automobile Okay so instead he followed his own vision and he imagined a better future than consumers were able to imagine So Henry Ford and all the other entrepreneurs they're in the business of creating our tomorrow the state is different The state is in the business of destroying our past so everything we did in the past everything entrepreneurs created in the past that's what the state is involved in destroying And then we can see the difference and the contrast and why entrepreneurship is the means to undermine and smash the state Completely opposites so it's obvious to me as an Austrian that entrepreneurship is what we need to understand is what we need to teach is also what we need to practice to get rid of the state It's that simple