The merchant, the army officer, the professor and the artist

I could also add: the priest or vicar, but I leave this out because the professions I mentioned deal with this world. The professions are ideal types of professions. It could be the result of a test on which you can score, indicating what type of professional you are. They are more or less mutually exclusive which means that they are “pure” and don’t tolerate each other’s features and characteristics. A good merchant is never a good artist, a good professor is very bad at leading an army platoon, etc.

I came to this distinction because of a discussion during a presentation of a dissertation team, in which the difference between a “manager” and an “entrepreneur” was discussed. I saw during that discussion the entrepreneur as the merchant, and the manager as the army officer. What does a manager do according to the management textbooks? Right: planning, leading, organizing and controlling, exactly what a high ranking army officer also is expected to do, just the same as a football coach is doing. The entrepreneur is both officer and merchant, which is not possible for a single merchant and a single officer. The officer would be accused for corruption and punished, and the merchant would loose real profit opportunities because now he is restricted by his organization, his employees and the law giving rules for enterprises: he cannot switch from trading in meals (restaurant) into car business overnight, and vice versa. But the true entrepreneur combines in a legal way both ideal types in him or her. The entrepreneur reflects the culture within which he can thrive, namely a democratic, tolerant culture. In the 17th Century the Netherlands were divided into the Arminians and the Gomarians. The Arminians recruited their members from the Amsterdam class of entrepreneurs with their V.O.C., and the intellectuals (the “professors”). Their spokesmen were Johan van Oldenbarneveldt (kind of “prime minister”), and the brothers De Witt, of whom Johan was also “prime minister”. They agreed with England that the Orange family had to be restricted in power. But the Gomarians uplifted the Orange family as their logo, and their orthodox Calvinist view on life and world was widespread among the common working class people. Although Oldenbarneveldt had been Maurits’ teacher and coach, Maurits was merciless in watching his beheading as a criminal. Maurits was a military, an officer, Oldenbarneveldt was a merchant and a professor. In fact, the Oranges made use of the Calvinist intolerance to gain power in collaboration with the army, damaging the economic interests of the merchants. The De Witt brothers were literally slaughtered by the “orthodox” mob, their bodies hung on poles, naked and cut open, while the “police” was watching, doing nothing. A situation as a consequence of co-operation between officers and vicars, who have to deal “not with this world”, according to Jesus’ words. We see the same now with imams calling for violent opposition to “worldly khafirs”, not realising that they also act worldly.
In those days an entrepreneur had far more characteristics of a merchant than he has today, today his job carries more and more the officer’s features. In fact, the pure merchant exists hardly anymore. But the “entrepreneur” carries a lot of his marking features: adventure, weighing risks and opportunities, striving for profit. The manager, like an officer, is more “neutral” and leaves the risk-taking strategy to his boss, the entrepreneur, who also is a manager (officer) more than he used to be. Democratic law makes his existence possible.
In fact, being an entrepreneur or manager in (post)modern times means that you have to be something of an artist and a professor, too. Not because these professions are worthwhile for their own sake but because they can be “profitable” (merchant) and can give “competitive advantage” (officer). In marketing and promotion/advertising campaigns the artist is “hired” and in product development and marketing the professor is also “hired”. Hiring means merchandise, and the modern merchant is aware that you have to hire as smartly as possible artists and professors to gain the biggest market share (officer), the best human resources (officer) to get the highest profit (merchant). The customer decides, this right is given to him by democracy, following the opportunities of technology and many, many services to be managed and merchandised by Covey-moulded managers and entrepreneurs. Alas, the customer doesn’t ask for many professor’s and artist’s interests that are not hired because the market doesn’t ask for them. They have to fight back with quality not measured by “meeting the expectations of the customer” but by “innate quality”, which is often not of this world, and is not for sale. You know what I mean, because it’s human, and any flesh-and-blood officer and merchant needs them, just like any real professor and artist needs merchant’s and officer’s traits.

Well, this was our ration of deliberation and rumination on an evaluation of a dissertation presentation by the younger generation :-)