Tony Deden on the business owner

Instead of taking our cues from financial types, let’s consider the owner of a long-standing enterprise.  He wants to avoid going out of business (and so do I).  He is entirely uninterested in what others do (and so am I).  He wants to remain competitive, relevant and enduring (so do I).  Yes, he aims to be profitable but, he really knows that, in the long run, profit is the result of being successful at what you produce, not the result of chasing higher securities prices.  He, too, deploys irreplaceable capital.  He, too, considers the scarcity of his resources and the value they reflect in all his actions.  He knows the difference between something that has financial value and something that has true economic value (so do I), and he wishes to leave something meaningful to the next generation (so do I and so should all of us).

~ Tony Deden, "Arise, prudent man," Grant's Fall 2018 Conference, October 19, 2018