You raise a good point – one I’d like to see some discussion on here in
the Gulch. I have seen very little evidence that Objectivists put much time
or energy into seeking out other Objectivists with whom to do business.

Here is something to consider when doing business with vendors (be they
large companies or mom-and-pop shops) that hold convictions that are adverse
to Objectivist principles. Assuming that these vendors are making a living or
generating profits from their business, it is likely the case that some portion
of these funds go to organizations (charities, churches, political causes or
any of myriad variety of educational projects) destructive of Objectivist principles
and the kind of society Objectivists would prefer living in.

Assuming all other things being equal (like quality of product and service, price,
etc.) and you had a choice of doing business with one in reasonable alignment
with Objectivism and one contrary to those values, why would you not do business
with the former? Granted, in many cases you don’t know. But why wouldn’t you
make some effort to find out?

Here is some food for thought and a topic on which I’d love to get some input
from fellow Gulchers. Objectivists tend to be quite independent. Indeed,
independence is a cardinal virtue. But is it possible to take that trait down paths
that are not self-serving? Objectivists often are inclined to steer away from
associations that might have overtones or even just appearances of any kind of
“groupism.” Why might this not be self-serving?

Consider the psychological concept of cohesion. Basically this is a trait that unifies
a group of people working toward common goals. I can just see some Objectivists
already cringing in horror at the very concept of cohesion. But before you reject it
out of hand, look up something about it. The findings might surprise you.

A significant aspect of all this is that not being cohesive may not be self-serving.
Why? Consider this tendency among cohesive groups of almost any kind be they
groups involved in sports, politics, military operations, commerce, or indeed,
organizations of any kind: THEY WIN.

I look forward to see what kind of product/service you’ll have to offer.

It would be nice if such an organization existed.
Actually, it did once exist--it was the Association of Objectivist Businessmen. There was an AOB Newsletter, and it came out, I think, once a month.
In fact, I had a subscription to it. (I was told that one did not have to be a business owner to get
a subscription). But that periodical quit publish-
ing, I don't know why.
I benefited from it, because it provided a way
for me to get in contact with someone who would
sell me plastic gloves (required as a health mea-
sure on my hot dog cart), after my boss started
buying them from Red China (which products I
refused to use, and for which for a while substituted Zip-
lock bags); but AOB eventually helped me get
the right gloves.
So there is a good reason for the existence
of such an organization. But I would beware of
getting an attitude of "I will do business only with
Objectivists, and never any outsiders." After
all, if I wanted to get a job somewhere, or to
start a business, I would not like it if my neigh-
bors were to get the attitude of "So you're an
Objectivist?!--Sorry, I don't want to buy from
anybody who is not a Christian." Or, "What
church do you go to?--None?! I don't rent rooms
to people who are not Christians, and never even
go to church!" etc.

I love the comments. I rub my hands together with anticipation of what could come of this. Trying to work legally with other objectivists within the constraints of the government makes me realize even more how they are slowly tightening the shackles that bind us.

Thank you all for the encouragement.

What is a B2B or B2C? Abbreviations mean nothing to some of us and you elitists love to show how cool you are by using such short cuts to conversations.

Objectivism is the most powerful idea in 2350 years of human thought. Who doesn't put it to work? Objectivists. Look at BB&T Bank. They teach the virtues to each employee and they have honesty as a virtue as Bankers! WHat a great marketing tool. I met with branch managers and worked out ways to put these virtues to work in direct marketing to the high profit line of financial management for new customers. Lets say you know the VP marketing for a small regional bank which wants to grow fast. You put me and her together and I design their new "Trust Honesty" marketing campaign. Soon you are hiring and investing too.

In my experience an insurance and financial services agent doesn't make a lot of money unless they establish the confidence of their clients in their ability to create investment opportunities. You participate and provide your services to the investment entity. That's how to make money. What you are doing is being the honesty and moral integrity connection between investors and what are hopefully honest Objectivist entrepreneurs or developers. I have several investible companies and development concepts from my days as an entrepreneur and development consultant. You as an honesty broker could license the right to sell them to your clients. They get innovation pretested for honesty you get fees and participation and I get to move breakthrough ideas that I don't have time for as a philosopher. In todays world truth, honesty, integrity, innovation etc are values that are worth a lot. What do you think?.

I personally don't think that the Gulch is the forum for what you propose. If you wish to create a forum for Gulchers in the mode you describe, I suggest that you get together with other Objectivists and go to it. This blog was created by people promoting the Atlas Shrugged movie as well as all other things Ayn Rand. They've put much time and effort into it and it is a greatly appreciated place to meet and converse with other like-minded folks, but, I suspect that you would change the nature of it.

Hello everybody. We are in area as well. And what I was really curious about is to find out for our business about financial services that are not under FDIC. Services that can be used by Californians and not just by federal U.S. citizens.

Great thoughts. Would be good to have them backed up as a code of conduct, with 5 sections:
1. General trading conduct
2. Conduct of B2B suppliers
3. Conduct of B2B customers
4. Conduct of B2C suppliers
5. Conduct of B2C customers

The purpose of business is to create a product or service that others might find useful. The purpose is not to find some cushy collective of others to feel good within. During Rand's time, my great disappointment was the 'Collective' formed by her followers and seemingly accepted by Rand, thus giving a cult like existence to the first decades of Objectivism. Your job as a business person is not that cushy collective with either a religious or philosophical agreement among members and clients, but to produce something useful for your clients should they decide to deal with you. If you have a usable product or service people will beat a path to your place and give you a profit and you will be much happier than making some kind of altruistic attempt at somehow changing people, none of whom have any agreement religiously or philosophically with you, into surrogates of yourself. It is a waste of your time. Let the market rule and enjoy the results, good or bad.
You would not like a Gulch where you could be ejected for the least little infringement, as were some in the Rand's Collective, of thought or action which would be less free than today's USA.

Over time as mention of novels pops up here I have bought them (Kindle edition almost always) because I have NEVER been disappointed with them. Your post about the market place made me realize that some of our fellow Gulcher's writings don't get mentioned so I did not know that there were several I'd not heard of. I have writings by Vinay Kolhatkar, Dale and Kalia Halling, Robert Gore, and Allan Ashinoff and am looking forward to purchasing others as I have the time to read them. This is one area where we can support each other rather easily in this digital age. As to other products, I'll make a point to check the Gulch in the future to see if one of us offers it.