You see, the thing about doing business in the world is that it’s really just an experiment—one giant, ongoing, messy experiment. And like any good experiment, it works best when you do two things: look at the evidence (empirical attitude) and stay open to new ideas (liberal attitude).
The Empirical Attitude: Business as an Experiment
Now, imagine an ancient merchant—he sells spices. He sets up shop, and customers trickle in. Some days are good, some days are bad. Now, if he has an empirical attitude, he observes. He sees that customers buy more cinnamon when it’s placed near the entrance. Huh. Interesting. He moves other spices around, and boom—sales change!
This is business by experiment, not by gut feeling. Over time, we called it data-driven decision-making, but it’s the same thing—test, measure, improve. This empirical mindset led to:
- Market research – Understanding customer behavior before launching a product.
- A/B testing – Companies now test everything, from ad colors to checkout page designs.
- Lean startups – Entrepreneurs build minimum viable products (MVPs) first, gather feedback, and tweak things before going big.
And that’s how we went from spice traders guessing at success to Amazon tracking every click you make to improve what they sell you next.
The Liberal Attitude: Thinking Beyond Boundaries
But data alone isn’t enough. You need to question the rules, break things, and rebuild them better. That’s the liberal attitude. The moment you say, “Well, that’s just how we’ve always done it,” you’ve already lost.
Take Henry Ford. Everyone told him, “Cars are luxury toys. Only the rich can afford them.” Did he listen? Nope. He challenged the norm and created the assembly line. Suddenly, cars were for everyone.
Then came the Silicon Valley rebels—Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk. They didn’t just accept the world as it was; they imagined how it could be. That liberal mindset gave us:
- The gig economy – Uber, Airbnb—business models that questioned old industries.
- Cryptocurrency – People asked, “Why do we even need banks?” Boom. Bitcoin.
- Remote work – Who said you need an office? COVID proved otherwise, and now it’s a norm.
Every breakthrough, from e-commerce to AI-driven marketing, started with someone refusing to accept “how things are done.”
The Magic of Combining Both
The real magic happens when empirical thinking meets liberal curiosity. Take SpaceX.
- Musk didn’t assume rockets had to cost billions.
- He tested ideas, crashed a few rockets, learned from the data, and improved.
- He ignored NASA’s old ways and figured out how to land rockets for reuse.
And now? Space travel is cheaper, and Mars colonization is actually on the table.
Final Thought: The Business World Is a Giant Lab
So what have we learned? The best businesses experiment, learn, and adapt. They don’t rely on gut feelings or traditions. They ask questions, they test, and they embrace change.
If you want to succeed in business, act like a scientist: Observe. Question. Test. Repeat.
That’s how we got here. And that’s how we’ll invent the future.
