Philosophy

Merrick embraces the ideas of Benjamin Franklin, Milton Friedman and Daniel H. Burnham. Merrick desires to fundamentally affect the outcome of the significant economic and social transformation our country is currently undergoing. America's greatest competitive strength is its unique ability to take advantage of the commercial, political and entrepreneurial freedoms founded in the United States.

Merrick offers an industrious and ambassadorial environment where our companies can thrive in a culture that promotes the responsibility of leaders to pursue philanthropy and economic endeavors to the benefit of both individuals and the community.

Benjamin Franklin discerned the keys to making America great and posted many words of wisdom in his Poor Richards Almanac. Franklin's sentiment that, "So much for Industry, my Friends, and Attention to one's own Business; but to these we must add Frugality, if we would make our Industry more certainly successful," applies equally to entrepreneurs and business leaders today as it did to the people of 1757.

As Milton Friedman said in 1962, "If an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie that one party can only gain at the expense of another." Merrick creates a synergistic amalgamation of proven business leaders and philanthropists who are dedicated to helping build emerging capitalists interested in centralizing their corporate endeavors in Chicago.

We offer our entrepreneurs and companies the same sage advice as Daniel H. Burnham bestowed upon us in 1911 when Chicago was being built. "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."

The views, ideals and prophecies of the great influential capitalist leaders of America's history provide the fundamental values and intellectual guidance for the principles and values of Merrick.