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The father of philosophy
Many consider Thales, who lived around 6th century B.C in Miletus city, to be the father of philosophy. But there are others who do not agree on this. That is not the issue of discussion here but something else.
Philosopher & business
An interesting story about his business acumen is mentioned by Aristotle in his book the Politics. Thales knew astronomy. He studied the stars and predicted that there would be a great harvest of olives next year.
He had little money. He gave deposits to all the oil pressing units in the town and booked it in advance for the next year. He got those bookings at a very low price because no one knew about the knowledge he had about the harvest.
As predicted the coming year had great olive harvest. Everyone wanted the oil pressing units. But it was all booked by Thales. Thales earned a fortune out of it by lending it out at good prices.
But Thales never considered business as his profession. For him Philosophy was what excited him more.
The context is that if you are a great learner and observer of things, you gain access to many spin off knowl;edge that can benefit you.
Knowledge is Success.
Comments are welcome
