Idea or Money?

Idea or Money which is first? This is the question many people who desire to own a business seem to struggle with; these two are important as they both determine our pursuit toward financial freedom. Thus, I was moved to ask this question to help clarify which is paramount. To help give a better direction, this was turned into a discussion with opinions coming in from the two sides; those that feel Idea is first and those that feel Money is first. The responses gotten from both side reveal much.

Some are of opinion that you need Idea over Money to create wealth, others believe that Money is paramount because it has a purchasing power, no doubt, the two are vital and function side by side, hard to differentiate which is a beneficiary of the other, however a deeper study helps to resolve this discord.

Idea by definition means something such as a thought or conception, which is the product of mental activity. In a popular sense, an Idea arises in a reflexive, spontaneous manner, even without thinking or serious reflection, or it is an action that emanates from a state of mind; brainstorming session which translates into some sort of formulation.

The genesis of any creation rest on Ideas, the bedrock of our social system. Meaning Idea is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings, and also a fundamental principle for creation. We can therefore see it as an asset; it is an intangible asset that is not monopolised and has potential likened to a seed.

Like every asset, it carries value, a limitless value but determined by its "conceiver".

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and for repayment of debts in a particular country or socio-economic context. Money works the social system. Having money enables the individual to use the system, to get the system to dispense what the individual needs and wants.

Money has control over the environment by mean of the social system; the control to make the system give you what you want. Money thus makes the person less dependent on the good will and social approval of others. Money enables you to use others to get what you want.

Money depends utterly on what other people think about it. Unless they agree to recognise it as having a particular kind of value that can be exchanged for other things, it is just useless paper and metal. It derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country.

The main functions of Money as analyzed by William Stanley Jevon, In Money and the Mechanism of Exchange (1875), are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, sometimes, a standard of deferred payment..

Currently, most modern monetary systems are based on fiat money. However, for most of history, almost all money was commodity money, such as gold and silver coins. As economies developed, commodity money was eventually replaced by representative money, such as the gold standard, as traders found the physical transportation of gold and silver burdensome. Fiat currencies gradually took over in the last hundred years, especially since the breakup of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s

Drawing a conclusion, Idea is the product of mental activity, a fundamental principle of creation and money which is fundamental principle of wealth creation, a medium of exchange. Ideas have potential to spring forth things just like you plant a seed, Money in its context also has value, and they both have potentials to propel result. The social system recognises the power and value of the two and responds to them, without Idea Money is worthless and without Money Idea is nothing, albeit with all this qualities and functions, Money came to existence by brainstorming session thus a product of idea.

“The guys with the money to finance your idea made their own money with their ideas” –Dr Wilson Orhiunu

Idea is creation, without creation there would NOT be anything called money”-Arch. Debola Adebayo