As an entrepreneur you will make countless decisions on a daily basis. Some will be small, some big. The net balance of making the right decisions will ultimately determine the success of your venture. So, how do you know if the decisions you make are the right ones? The answer to this lies in the answer to an even more fundamental question, how do you know what you know, and how do you validate it? Do you know because your parents told you? Your teachers told you? The scriptures told you? Your friends told you? Your business associates told you? Perhaps they are right. Even if true, the question still remains. How do they know what they know, and how did they validate it? More importantly how does it help you know?
For an entrepreneur, as a creative innovator seeking definitive answers to real world situations to be capitalized on, the question “how do you know what you know” is not only an important question it is the most important and fundamental question one can ask. Without knowing an entrepreneur cannot proceed with certainty about any decision they wish to make.
Any appeal to blindly accept what someone else states as true is to subordinate oneself to their authority. An appeal to authority is an appeal to believe rather than know. Believing something to be true is not the same as knowing it to be true. An Objectivist entrepreneur does not believe in believing, but rather in knowing. It is the reasoning of the person not their authority that is of value to aid their decision making.
“Reason is man’s only absolute”
Ayn Rand
So how do we know? The first axiom one must accept is that we live in an objective universe that provides consistent answers to those who seek them. Only then will an entrepreneur be prepared to unravel the mysteries of the universe and discover its true nature. The second axiom is to recognize that as a conscious being you are capable of knowing it with certainty (Doubt vs Certainty).
“The first and primary axiomatic concepts are “existence,” “identity” (which is a corollary of “existence”) and “consciousness.” One can study what exists and how consciousness functions; but one cannot analyze (or “prove”) existence as such, or consciousness as such. These are irreducible primaries. “
Ayn Rand
However, if you do not believe in an objective universe, where there are no answers, you will never attempt to ask the question “how do I know”, as you will already believe there is no answer to it. The mysteries of the universe will always remain ambiguous; and its true nature will remain undiscovered to you. If you subordinate your decision making to the opinions of authority you will never ask the second question, “how do I validate it”, as you will already believe validation comes not from confirming it for yourself but rather subordinating your decision making to those in authority.
An Objectivist entrepreneur accepts the axioms that we live in an object world that exists independent of our consciousness; we are capable of knowing it and validating it through reasoning. In fact that is the mission of an entrepreneur, to discover something new and bring it into the world. While the world may appear confusing or even contradictory at times this is merely a failure of sufficient understanding not of reality itself. Accepting reality exists, through observation and reasoning, it is there for you to discover.
“Whether you know the shape of a pebble or the structure of a solar system, the axioms remain the same: that it exists and that you know it.”
Ayn Rand