If you're a company wanting to create something spectacular, then you need "things" (assets) to support that product creation: buildings, machinery, land, equipment, materials, supplies and everything else that goes into supporting your business. In other words, you need capital.
But how do you get this capital? Simple businesses don't need a lot of capital funding. A good ‘ole fashioned car wash in your parking lot just needs some soap, a source of water and some rags. But in terms of a fast track to the Billionaire List, that won't get you very far.
On the level of business development that gets reported by the Wall Street Journal, you'll require larger scale methods of raising funds. These include things like equity or bond issuance (selling stock in the company or borrowing money from investors).
Here's an example:
Let's say you're hanging out with your buddies one night and after downing a few stiff drinks and complaining about the drudgery of completing TPS reports. After downing a few, you begin making plans to stick it to the man, and better yet, start your own profitable business. You think, heck everyone else is using the Internet to make money, why can't I? And after a few more rounds of gin and juice you convince your friends that the business degree you earned 20 years ago makes you an expert in this kinda stuff, and so you all take the Nestea plunge.
But you realize you have no funding to buy things like equipment, supplies, land, office space, or even staplers (you know, no capital) to get your new flair company up and running. So, after writing a stellar business plan, you go down to the local bank to get a loan, but are promptly denied because your business is too "risky" (what do they know about e-commerce anyway?). You and your partners promptly agree that you need to find some way to have someone fund your venture.
You remember that your brother's wife's sister's co-worker knows some rich millennials with deep pockets (venture capitalists or angel investors). And they agree to throw some money your way. (Apparently they like flair too). Thankfully, with your newfound equity AND after successfully issuing some capital bonds AND rolling out an IPO, you've finally raised enough capital to buy you and your buddies new Maseratis to support your business travel needs in Europe. Wait. Wasn't this supposed to be an e-commerce business?
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Karl Marx was a fiercely bearded German economist and philosopher.
seriously look at beard .fierce. with the help of his equally bushy pal Friedrich [Marx pictured]
angles Marx wrote a little book that would have enormous influence on the
Russian revolutionaries of the early 20th century. that book of course was
called Little House on the Prairie. it's just making sure you're with us. it
was actually called the communist manifesto. so let's break it down .the
world according to Marx suffers because of social classes. well in the Western
world we started with feudalism as the class system .if you were a king life was
groovy. if you were a serf and not so much. feudalism crashed and burned and
capitalism rolled in with its booze huazi and proletariat classes. well
according to the Communist Manifesto capitalism was much much much worse than
feudalism. why ?because the booze huazi or owners are the means of production who [communist manifesto pictured]
embraced capitalism would do anything to make a dollar.
this included dehumanizing abusing and manipulating the proletariat or worker
class who toiled on their behalf. so Marx and Engels believed that capitalism
caused enormous suffering and hardship in the modern world. furthermore it
caused corruption because the government was essentially in cahoots with the
bourgeoisie. thanks to the unfairness inherent in capitalism Marxism states
that the proletariat and bourgeoisie will forever be butting heads .more
importantly that tension will eventually result in a revolution of the masses. and
just what would that revolution look like? well Marx and Engels had a few
ideas .there would be no private ownership of land. there would be no
inheritance rights. the state would control the means of communication and
transport .and instead of laboring in factories kids would go to school where
they'd get a free education. the communist manifesto posits that Marxism
would succeed where other forms of socialism had failed because communists
would always put the proletariat first. furthermore other forms of socialism
were nothing more than programs for small reforms .if the ship of the worker [different ships with different forms of government written on sails]
was going to be set right full-blown an all-out revolution was needed.
and that's what Marxism was all about. Marx and Engels like to think that
Germany would be ground zero for the proletariat takeover.
they probably rolled over in their graves when Hitler came to power, but
never fear the Communist Manifesto was a home run for one group. da the Russians.
at the turn of the 20th century there were two divisions of the Russian social
democratic Labour Party .the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks many of whom had been
kicked out of Russia for being naughty revolutionaries spent about a decade
meeting in pubs in London. over a nice warm pint they'd argue about whose
interpretation of Marxism was correct and what the best method for taking over
Russia was .well frankly we would have picked somewhere tropical for our
communist revolution but well to each his own. while the Mensheviks and [Castro pictured]
Bolsheviks both wanted Russia to ditch capitalism and the Czar their
medium-term goals were quite different. well the Mensheviks wanted to work with
Russian officials already in office to build a kind of democratic system that
would make Russia a better place for everyone. Bolsheviks wanted to burn it
all down. well if you're wondering where Vladimir Lenin is and all this wonder no
more it was at the head of the Bolsheviks. he thought the Mensheviks
were wusses and that Russia's communist government would need to be small and
tightly controlled so that the masses wouldn't rebel. anywho after all those
years of plotting abroad the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks finally saw an
opportunity to get things going in 1917. and viva la revolucion. but that's for [mob of Russians protest]
another video. what, you thought we'd give you all the fun stuff right now?
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