Synkyndineo: A Greek Philosophy for Business

Sharing risks should be emphasized a little more in the world of business.

Mwanikii
Be Unique
3 min readNov 23, 2020

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Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Over the centuries, the business has been morphed by the world's changes, but some basics remain the same. One such concept is risk-sharing in the world of business, and it would be good to understand the historical context of synkyndineo.

Antiquity

The need for such a philosophy proved the need for such a thought process in the first place. On the seas and the oceans were many problems unfathomable to many of us seated in our couches or those of us who have access to modern technology.

Merchant ships were susceptible to pirates and storms, which led to the realization that there would be a need for traders to have an equal stake were a tragedy to happen.

According to Rhodian law since around 800 B.C., this was not a preference but a legal requirement:

It is provided by the Rhodian Law that where merchandise is thrown

overboard for the purpose of lightening a ship, what has been lost for the

benefit of all must be made up by the contribution of all.

What did this seemingly obvious strategy do for most merchants who used it, whether in the desert caravans or the ships?

More Profit, Less Interest

Lax regulation in the 70s led to the huge rise in debt financing, and this marked a significant change in the dynamics for those who were engaging in business. One thing that came to the forefront was interest and considering whether your profits would grow faster than the interests on the loans. If they did, someone was safe; if they didn’t, someone would have to think of the consequences that followed.

Let us compare this to pooling resources from like-minded people or those that can agree on better terms. With this plan, the thought of having to repay anything with interest immediately gets erased from the horizon. The issues that come to light are:

  1. Building greater efficiency to ensure profitability.
  2. Equally sharing any loss that may occur and reduce the impact on someone who decided to go on the venture alone.
  3. Getting a greater chance of diversifying an investment portfolio.

The emphasis I place on this method would even work particularly well for small-scale investors as there would be a direct evasion from the ugly trap of debt. One has to consider that they may not know a significant amount of information about the debt to try that path. In that case, taking the road less traveled, especially in this day and age, would work wonders for you.

Final Thoughts

Using synkyndineo has worked for centuries in many lands and has proven a resilient strategy in investing huge sums of money. Sometimes, keeping it simple and sticking to what has always worked could do wonders for you. Knowing this information, it would be of great help to try this avenue of working with like-minded individuals to raise large sums of money in adequate proportions. It might serve the purpose of saving someone from the hardship that comes with debt-financing where the technical knowledge is lacking.

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Be Unique
Be Unique

Published in Be Unique

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Mwanikii
Mwanikii

Written by Mwanikii

Writer. Techie. History buff. If it changes the world I’m on its case. Open for gigs… freddynjagi@gmail.com! Published by the Writing Cooperative.