Oh Say Nation 5th

The Internet boon has swept the nation, and the one who sets out upon this vast field of economic opportunity is left to wonder after success while seeing the evidence all around that success is indeed possible. Even expert analysts cannot know for certain wherein lies the truest measure of glory yet witnessed in the e-business and e-commerce fields; how virtual is this reality lent our economy and possible economic prospects for the individual whereupon advertising has a greater resolve to make creative venture turn into its fullest demand? When that demand becomes a profit-giving holding through the cyberspace channel, success is born. It is deemed difficult to estimate let alone measure the potential economic power of all of e-commerce in the nation if only because traditional parameters as present in the flow of more concrete goods and services as have been studied and recorded on the bricks-and-mortar side for decades are now elaborated upon.

Indeed, this elaborative modification of the classical Gross National Product (GNP)* wherein extremely high speeds of communication and information exchange greatly enhance the factors of production contributes to the challenge in tallying the actual sum of all of the final goods and services in a year produced by those factors of production; that is, the economic effect of greater information efficiency and outreach on the sheer production of goods and services now made possible by online sales, services, advertising and, most importantly, information shareability will prove over time to have greatly affected our economy.

For example, a consumer needs an item which is to be typically found at the local department store. That item is priced too high for the consumer's buying power or buying initiative. Bowing out of the purchase, that consumer consults through a personal computer the prospects of saving on cost for the item either locally through an information search or from a direct online sale. The power of information is intervening competitively in this instance. Indeed, the consumer finally not only buys the desired item from a Website; that consumer is so impressed by the savings made available through the newly discovered marketplace just researched online that he avails himself further of the market pricing in gross quantities, as well; the price of large quantities of the good are even better and enable him to open an online business himself. Such a consumer is now an entrepreneur where before he was in he simple need of an item. This is an example of the stimulation in the production of a service; an actual measure of goods and services transacted would not give as accurate a reflection of the state of the economy of a nation since in this industrial age goods are financially processed repeatedly before the final sale which actually satisfies a concrete need of a consumer even as a raw material would be so processed in manufacturing.

Consider that more drastic than this observation of the power of cybernetically born information to spur economic growth comes the realization that growth of technology at the hardware level is also booming and driving the overall e-commerce sector in ways further not so predictable. In short, what is the best advice for an individual who sets out upon the concrete task of building an e-business? He/she must know that there is an indefinite rate of success, an unknown field, and will perhaps worry that the dream has folded somehow since e-commerce is both immeasurable and unprecedented to many. Maybe the boon is over? If one had not arrived before this time, perhaps new arrivals are too late. Such are valid questions, yet who has answers? To whom can one turn for worthwhile guidance and nurture of hope and vision? Still, no matter the new and mind-boggling trappings of the cybernetics about us, the one to whom one turns is the self, just as before.

A useful business practice which can only serve any e-business entrepreneur which can guide one past all obstacles, including those born of setbacks, requires a deeper realization of purpose at hand. Granted, a business idea is born. Transactions which turn into concrete profits for that business, however, do not arrive in the present tense; instead, they are only in the offing. If economists cannot fully or easily grasp how profoundly the new e-commerce explosion has affected our nation, then also, how can an individual ever measure up to the task of founding a successful e-business venture? There is a sense of pioneering about such a venture while at the same time a recognition of broad evidence of success really everywhere. At what more cogent juncture than this can the individual setting out to make his/her fortune across the Internet realize the power, place and purpose of the 'big picture' in the sense of e-business opportunity? When duty-mindedness is placed in the perspective of the most expansive business idea for an individual who is starting a business, then is a business born; all actions and inspirations for proper measures to be taken must only be determined by an abstract sense of accomplishment drawn from values which pertain to the finest ideal, the most all-inclusive framework. All prospects must be nurtured as if success versus failure did not matter in the ultimate sense when actions and transactions are motivated by the greater vision, that is, the 'big picture' in e-business practices. The sheer devotion to action with no attachment directly to results for the time being and in direct cognizance of the 'big picture' will nurture that business into creation. When an individual turned now into en e-business founder sees beyond the moment, extrapolates into a day not yet arrived, and calculates by that futuristic leap past the present tense by creative concept, a victory has been struck, a creative move has been made. These creative moves constitute the birth most directly of a business even if e-business. We must not let the overall uncertainty and the unknown economic validity of a new field of real endeavor, e-commerce, cloud the vision of the individual yet at hand. For the individual is even now yet held sacred and not lost in the sweep of a new economic force if that individual proves ultimately a vision beyond question and doubt in the practical side of virtual economic prowess.

To give an example: no profits have yet even flowed in a hypothetical e-business, and a potential client is being developed from a targeted mailing list. That client expresses a need for massive delay before even accepting the business at hand as valid or interesting, leaving the business developer as more of a seer than a salesperson. Where should the proposed transaction rest? It rests in time. Here the founder must wait. However, that wait is also transient, and it should be perceived rather as a gift, an opportunity so that a successful turnaround can be made. A sale can one day occur as according to that turnaround. This is the way of the vision of the e-business founder. It is to extract from the 'big picture' idea the best answer to the doubter, the one who claims to have no current interest in any product or participation at hand. Speak yet through the belief in product or service to be sold. Build even past refutation first a would-be refutation; then, move in from that second-order challenge by vehicle of bargain, of innovation, of incomparable worth, as to how the mind of the refuter must see anew and accept the offer, the trade, the deal, or whatever else it takes -- but across time must this reach. Then a vision is born into event. Then a business arises out of a vision. Picture it, and then picture it as it is actively carried out.

From that simple yet extensive basis of vision of a 'big picture' ideation can a successful business practice be set up, and then the e-business founder will have separated out the quixotic from the real, the practical from the abstract or even vainglorious in the overall economic sector once joined. This sector, known as e-commerce collectively, yet remains a definite topic of indefinite dimensions to economic and financial analysts all across the globe, not only across the nation.

*From A Glossary of Political Economy Terms by Dr. Paul Johnson, GNP is defined:

An estimate of the total money value of all the final goods and services produced in a given one-year period by the factors of production owned by a particular country's residents. ("Final" goods and services means goods and services sold or otherwise provided to their final consumers -- that is, to avoid double counting, the value of steel sold to GM to make a car is not added separately into the GNP or GDP totals because its value is already included when we add in the final sales price of the car to the customer.)

Marilynn Stark

August 20, 2002