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Previous: Chapter 19 - Principles of Wealth Acquisition
CHAPTER 20 - HOW TO GET RETIREMENT IDEAS AND SPOT IDEAL SITUATIONS
A person or group who deals in labor is known by the genteel name of "employer." Employers are a cutthroat lot, on the whole. Besides their treatment of their employees on the whole they will not hesitate for one minute to reduce their competitors to the status of paupers if they could—and they often can and do. They continually wage economic war with each other. This is called competition.
This battle is won as a rule with those who command the greatest capital resources. A big competitor can suffer a loss leader for years until he commands the field. He can spend unlimited amounts on new and better capital equipment. He can spend a fortune in research developing more efficient production techniques, better systems and better utilization of that one commodity which is his ace in the hole—LABOR. You can never hope to compete with bigger capital. Your best enterprise may best be compared with that which the flea practices upon the elephant. You are insignificant but you can exist comfortably in your sphere. And, in principle, you can take advantage of certain situations just as much as the big fellow. One of the big secrets for the little fellow is how to deal in labor without owning the capital equipment normally required to employ labor. This boils down to, HOW TO BE AN EMPLOYER WITHOUT CAPITAL. This is a rare category but there does exist such a one. If you are adept at borrowing your capital requirements or of persuading others to invest the necessary capital in a venture of yours you will not actually have to have any capital of your own but, as easy as this may often be, it is not what I want to portray to you. There are many situations where you can employ labor without having to own tools or capital equipment of any significance.
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