Colorado Springs — Billionaire Charles Koch on Saturday told the largest gathering yet of donors to his network of organizations that the goal of all of his efforts is to liberate people and help make them as productive and happy as possible.
“It’s based on the recognition that virtually everybody can learn, contribute and succeed if they’re given the freedom and opportunity to do so,” Koch told hundreds of people attending his Seminar Network.
“We know through history that liberated people are productive, innovative and entrepreneurial,” he said. “People who are subjugated, intimidated, controlled or dependent are not.”
“So our vision is to remove the barriers to opportunity,” he said.
Koch said those barriers are both internal and external, and he said the goal of his groups is to give people the tools to succeed, and take down external barriers that are in their way.
A major theme of the gathering is “the courage to lead,” and its organizers are focusing on ways to improve education, communities, business practices and government. Koch said harmonizing all of these efforts is a recipe for success.
“People make themselves rich by making everybody around them rich, and that’s what we’re after.”
Koch was joined on stage by leaders of his various groups, and others like Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who he credited with confirming Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and NFL great Deion Sanders, who is partnering with Stand Together to fight poverty in the Dallas area.
