Thales of Miletus, his Olive Presses, and 3 Fascinating facts

Thales of Miletus is a Pre- Socratic Greek Philosopher, who famously said the origin of all the matter is water. He was famous for many other things, and among them few fascinates me the most.

Fact 1 - Earliest known polymath.

He is one of the earliest known polymaths. Philosophy, mathematics, astronomy were his main subjects of interest and had made significant contributions to each. When someone is majoring not one but three developing subjects, it would have profound effect in all of them, as there would be more interconnected knowledge. This makes a significant difference in understanding the world and hypothesizing. Such as his famous "water as an Arche". (Which means everything is originated from a single substance, and his hypothesis was water.)

A battle

Fact 2 - Astronomer who fell into a well.

According to the legend he was deeply engaged in studying the stars that he accidentally fell into a well and made fun of by a servant girl, that he was crazy to know what was up in the heavens but could not see what was in front of him beneath his feet.

This is not an uncommon fact. Although it was a laughable accident, I am sure Thales was not that the guy with a tunnel vision. Yet, it is good advice for anyone to climb down the ladder of ego and feel the feet above the ground to see where we stand with respect to life.

Fact 3 - Thales of Miletus and his Olive Press.

Thales of Miletus was an entrepreneur. He was not rich at his birth, but perused wealth. According to later philosophers, it was rather in a mission to prove that philosophy can indeed provide a practical value. What a shame if someone comes and ask, your philosophy has no practical value, as there is no richness that you have gained. If philosophy is about truth, it should have unraveled the philosophy of wealth as well. Indeed, the richest people on planet must be philosophers by definition.

If you are a trader or have done bit of trading at some point in your life, you may have heard of the Options, and Futures. Thales of Miletus had done this few thousand years ago, by renting olive presses, either as options or futures, and then when the harvest is abundant and need for presses was rising, he had made a profit. It is unclear he became rich at the end of this endeavor, yet, that futures, and options still exist in the financial world, means he was not a mediocre salesman.

Olive

In the modern world I find a great many examples of entrepreneurs who are also, philosophers. But I am not aware of any individual story of a person who became rich just to prove a point to others. In a sense richness had no value for Thales of Miletus, but he sleeked only validity from general public, the practicality of his philosophy. Maybe he wanted to test his own theories than external validity. Whatever the reason the chronological order is a rare occurrence. Analyticity without practicality is nonproductive.

Do you know any philosopher who attempted being rich -> to show the practical value of philosophy? Maybe Benjamin Franklin was one such.