Intent vs Impact: The Ethics of Invention

I’d like to believe this generation of young adults has the largest population of entrepreneurs to have ever existed. We find ourselves in a world where the market has become so saturated that it’s hard to make it big. The only way to stand out in a market is when you do something out of the ordinary and this generation has proved to have the capacity to do that and make.

Over the years, I’ve seen and heard of many businesses and ideas that blew my mind away with how innovate they were. If I was an investor, I’d obviously bet on these businesses because these ideas have proved to be sustainable and reliable for us all. And when you look at these founders, you see the passion they have for what they do and you just know that they are bound to make it.

Our world today runs on the concept of trade. It’s either you’re selling, or buying- some people choose to be mediators and that’s fine. But this is what rules the world and when it comes to trade, whoever is able to provide the best goods or services with a great marketing strategy is bound to have the customers on his side. Recently, in Ghana fuel prices dropped so much such that fuel companies started offering their customers breakfast and even lunch just to patronize them. It became a competition at some point and this shows you how important sales is to any business. Your marketing strategy must also be good enough to back up the quality products you have. Everyone loves to benefit, so you find their soft spot and you hit on it.

When it comes to business, I don’t think anyone starts a business with the intention to harm. Even some drug dealers don’t intend to harm because I’ve seen movies where they refuse to sell their drugs to breastfeeding mothers and young kids. Every business man’s goal is to make money while providing goods or services to others. I’m yet to meet someone with the intention to harm. Honestly, there will always be bad people on this earth whether we like it or not. These kinds of people always find ways and means to make everything look bad. They either repurpose things to cause distress or in worse cases harm.

In my point of view, producers shouldn’t have to take the blame for the wrong decisions of their customers. It’s more like blaming the rope company because someone decided to hang himself. With such things, you can’t really blame the producer as he knows nothing about why his product would used for one it is being sold out. People would always do bad, but they had a choice and chose to go the wrong way. Can’t really blame anyone for that.

We don’t also expect every company to go after their customers just to see what their products are being used for. That would even be bad for business. So, they make sales and hope that their products are being used for the right reasons. The world is really scary today, but there will equally be good in the world as has always been the case. Instead of focusing on the bad, why not focus on the good.

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all images belong to me.

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