"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." --John Galt In Ayn Rand's defining work, Atlas Shrugged, the world's defining original thinkers and innovators band together and go on strike, preferring to remove their gifts from the world rather than have them exploited and abused by the cheap, venal, mercenary second-handers and followers who failed to appreciate their brilliance. The strikers all retreated, leaving a crumbling infrastructure behind them, to follow their leader, the mysterious John Galt. The son of an Ohio garage mechanic, Galt left home at age 12 and began college at Patrick Henry University at age 16. There he befriended Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld, all three of whom double-majored in physics and philosophy. They were the cherished students of the brilliant scientist Robert Stadler and the brilliant philosopher Hugh Akston. After graduating, Galt became an engineer at the Twentieth Century Motor Works where he designed a revolutionary new motor powered by ambient static electricity with the potential to change the world. Like Ellis Wyatt, he has created what many had for years said was impossible. When the company owners decided to run the factory by the collectivist maxim, 'By each according to his ability, to each according to his need', Galt organized a successful labor strike, proclaiming his promise to stop the motor of the world. He began traversing the globe, meeting the world's most successful businessmen, systematically convincing them to follow in his footsteps; one by one, they began abandoning their business empires (which, Galt convinced them, were doomed to failure anyhow, given the increased nationalization of industry by the government). Secretly, these captains of industry, led by Galt and banker Midas Mulligan, had created their own society — a secret enclave of rational individualists living in "Galt's Gulch", a town secluded high in a wilderness of mountains.
Sounds really interesting... Is the book famous? I'll look it up. EDIT: Hey, they're making a movie outta it. I have also found an Audio book. I hope it is interesting...
Jason Raimondo is/was heavily influenced by Rand. That said, I've found most Randians are really annoying, self-serving individualists. In other words, a Randian with a soul is a libertarian.
Objectivism is about being self-serving. It's about being selfish because there is no reason not to be. When you start a business, you do it to make money for yourself. You don't do it for the government. You don't do it for the poor people. You don't do it for your employees. You don't do it to better the world. You do it for yourself because your self interest is the most important thing to you. Make sure you don't steal it.