I have always wanted to be a scholar and a businessman. In some way, this is an oxymoron - and if you look at it, few have been able to bridge the difference that it entails.

According to ” the American Political Tradition: and the Men who Made it” which was written by Richard Hofstadter, American business people are rarely men or women who were thought leaders. Business people have more traditionally been oriented toward action rather than contemplation. Business people can often be highly intelligent, but what makes them successful is the excellence of mind that is employed within a fairly narrow, immediate and predictable range:

Whereas the mind of the intellectual not only wants to work with ideas, but also to play with them. Thus, ideas for an intellectualhave an integrity of their own, and the intellecutal
approaches them therefore with’piety’, while the business executive lives off ideas, not for them.”

To a certain degree, therefore, it is hard to be an intellectual businessman. In my personal sense, I do sense that - sometimes, I tend to think ” too much”, or analyze too much, or tinker too much, rather than let it be. And that can sometimes not be too good for business….

What do you think?