The American Dream - Broke and Broken (a.k.a. 60-Minutes off course)

We live in the greatest country in the world.  Hidden beneath the everyday realities of recessions, unemployment and economic crisis lay opportunity after opportunity for positive growth, personal success and fulfillment.

 

60-Minutes recently ran a piece on the long-term unemployed called Trapped in Unemployment that absolutely outraged me.  They had a panel of about eight long-term unemployed “educated professionals.”  Highlighted in the piece was Joe Carbone, the founder of Platform to Employment as the hero.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying Joe Carbone is a bad guy.  I’m not even suggesting that he shouldn’t be considered a hero. 

What I am suggesting is that he STOP suggesting that a connection exists between the American Dream and having a job.   

Here is an excerpt from one of the subjects of the 60-minute piece, named Vernon:

             “I was very angry. I was very bitter.  I was fed up with society; the

Corporate world; the lies; deceit, the greed.”

I applaud Vernon for expressing himself that way.  He should be fed up with society. We all should be.  Joe Carbone himself said the following:

            “We ought to be angry.  We ought to be giving every moment of our time figuring out how we are going to restore for them The American Dream.”

I couldn’t agree more with Joe’s statement.  I couldn’t disagree more with his solution.  I appreciate his emotion as he talks about the affect his work has had on him and the stories he has heard.  However, teaching people how to, “Claw there way back to employment,” as 60-Minute correspondent Scott Pelley suggests isn’t the answer.

Diane, another subject talked about, “how this has become about my dignity.”  How far have we fallen that our dignity is tied to someone else accepting us?   By definition, that is the opposite of dignity.  “Self”- respect only comes from someone respecting themselves for their talent, determination, resourcefulness and effort.

The confidence these people are experiencing is false confidence.  They are being set up with false hope and expectations for the future.  Deep down, they know they are just one bad day in the market from unemployment again and I am not sure anyone wants to be there when that happens. 

We, as a country have to dis-engage from this belief that the ultimate goal in life is to get a job – to be employed. 

The concept of The American Dream has many meanings to many people.  For me, it’s a reflection of being in the “land of opportunity.”  

It has to do with the fact that each one of us, despite our current situation, has the opportunity to raise ourselves from poverty to great wealth and success.  It means business ownership. 

It is self-reliance and hard work.  It is a belief that what you are doing serves the greater good and allows you to share your true gifts with the world. 

My definition of the American Dream is Never Needing A Job.

We have created a system in which, by any measure less than 30% of the participants are actively engaged in the work they do.  That represents, in my opinion a 70% fail rate.  Employee Engagement studies around the world confirm this. 

The answer to regaining your dignity does not lie in helping someone else fulfill his or her dreams.  Dignity is restored when you break free from a society that creates victims and you create the life you want to lead; when you serve those you are meant to serve.

If you are prepared to blow leaves for $8.00 and hour, as Vernon was, why not start your own leaf blowing company and blow leaves for $35 an hour?   
Sure it’s not easy, but it’s easier than being unemployed for 99 weeks.  The worst possible outcome is the gap in your resume is filled. 

What if while you looked for a job, you read one book a week about a topic you were passionate about?   If you haven’t found a job by the time your unemployment benefits run out you will have read 99 books on one single subject and fully qualified yourself as an expert in your field of choice. 

Abraham Lincoln insisted that the greatness of the American North was that industry allowed all men to prosper:

 "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world,
labors for wages awhile,
saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself;
then labors on his own account another while,
and at length hires another new beginner to help him. 
This…is free labor--the just and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way for all."

These people, like all long-termed unemployed are not to be blamed.  This is not a “U.S.” problem it is a “us” problem.  There is no finger pointing.  It is not a party line argument.  There is no “them,” just a collective “We.” We as a society are all contributors.

It begins in our school systems.  I recognized long ago that our schools are not designed to create successful people.  Our schools are simply designed to create successful employees – but only for those that manage to stand out amongst their peers and fall in line. 

Many kids are labeled as early as second grade as “the ones that aren’t going to make it.”  For them, the immediate and pressing goal is to prepare them to flip burgers so they at least have a job. 

In many of our poorest cities, it is not uncommon for High School graduation rates to hover around the 50% mark.  If you are someone that has failed to achieve a degree you are immediately labeled as a failure.  I have a novel idea – how about we don’t label these kids as failures and encourage them to follow their dreams in self-employment. 

American History is overflowing with uneducated; born into poverty; sickly and handicapped Industrial Giants and business success stories.  Here are just a few:
 

  Thomas Edison – 3 months of formal education

 Andrew Carnegie – Elementary School Dropout

 Charles Dickens – Elementary School Dropout

 Milton Hershey – 4^th Grade Education

 Mark Twain – 5^th Grade Education

 Henry Ford – 8^th Grade Education

 Walt Disney – Dropped out of school at 16

 Peter Jennings – dropped out of school in 10^th grade

 Anthony Robbins – did not attend college

 Steven Spielberg – dropped out of college

 Steve Jobs – Dropped out of college

 Bill Gates – dropped out of college

And although not American, it’s worth mentioning:

 Richard Branson – dropped out of High School at 16

 Simon Cowell – dropped out of school at 16.

Every American needs to wake up to today’s reality.  As Seth Godin, the brilliant thinker, social visionary and author recently pointed out:

"The recession is a forever recession.  There's a cyclical recession

that comes  and goes. But then there's this other thing. And it's the

end of the industrial age.

 "It lasted for 80 years. For 80 years you got a job, you did what you

were told, and then you retired.

 "And now, it's over. That's no longer how the world works."

Until we as a country recognize this change we are going to continue to struggle.  I fear the worst is yet to come.  Our schools (a.k.a. employee factories) are churning out people at such a rapid pace while every large employer is struggling to get smaller.  Something has to give.   According to the 2010 Census, 89% of American companies employ less than twenty employees.  Most of these companies will never grow - ever period.

Even our MBA programs are not churning out business owners.  As Cameron Herold, the CEO of 1-800 Got Junk so wonderfully points out in his March 2010 TED speech entitled, Teaching Kids to Be Entrepreneurs, our MBA programs are teaching people how to get jobs at big corporations.  In his presentation he asks the one question our future is riding on:

           

“Who is starting these companies?”

I would add…                               Who is creating these jobs?

We all need to recognize that there are other options.  Your life is no longer defined by the name with the big font on the top of your business card right above your name in the smaller font.  Your dignity and self-respect should not be tied to the recognition you get from your manager -who by the way, 50% of you hate.

I want to be crystal clear here.  I am not saying if you have a job you are a bad person.  I am not saying if you don’t think you have what it takes to start your own business, or you have no desire to start your own business you are a bad person. 

All I ask is that a society, we start recognizing business ownership as a more than viable option for most Americans.   According to the 60-Minutes piece, about 25% of the Americans out of work have been out of work for over a year.  Many of them, like the members of the panel, are smart, educated professionals.  Do you have any idea how many dumb, uneducated self-employed millionaires there are in this country? 

I’m just sayin.’

Consider this fair warning:  If you are currently one of the “lucky” ones currently collecting a weekly paycheck you had better start preparing for the day your “luck” runs out.  Start planning your next business now.  Ninety-nine weeks is a good head start for launching all kinds of businesses.

And by the way – Start Reading!