That reminds me of the old story about the artist asked to create a company logo. He gave them a high price, he worked on it for a couple of hours and gave them something fantastic, but they complained. "Hey, that only took you a couple of hours." His response was, "No, it took me twenty years of working on this stuff to be able to do something like that for you in a couple of hours."
Really well said, John. The problem, as I see it, is that we’ve got a generation that’s lived easier than any generation in the history of mankind. They’ve had everything handed to them: unlimited games, apps, etc on their hands, trophies for showing up, parents that spoiled the sh*t out of them, etc. now, when faced with the real world, they pushing back against hard work because they’ve never had to do it!
Personally, I want them to learn that hard work doesn’t guarantee success (as you so cogently pointed out) but hard work ALWAYS makes you better. Sure you may not make it to the NBA or the PGA, and you may not become a paid gamer or a partner a a huge hedge fund, but you will better. And that, in and of itself, is worth the effort.
That being said, they also need to learn that if they simply think they’re going to dial life in, the taxpayers aren’t going to be on the hook.
The people have gotten comfortable and the country has gotten comfortable. Even setting aside political differences, a lot of what people are howling about with Trump is just basic accountability that should have never stopped happening.
How dare ICE arrest illegals! - That's literally their job.
Look at all those government workers that are getting fired. So sad! -- Our tax dollars pay for that. Why would we want dead weight?
Oh no, able bodied people have to work to get Medicare! -- They should have always had to do that. Are we running a summer camp or a country?
Exactly. And you’re right, there’s too many on the right who now argue that more handouts is a good thing, if we just give them to different Americans (Senator Hawley and VP Vance, for example).
Related to this. I am the CEO of two businesses with a total of about 100 employees. One business I hire recent college graduates with a financial accounting degree and a head for that type of work.
My corporate leadership experience led me to a worldview where I see all human existence analogous to a hike or a climb. I graduated high school in 1978 and that ethos seemed common at the time. Most of my classmates at the time seemed to have the same orientation. They were working in part-time jobs while attending class... trying to finish whatever level of education they sought to obtain so they could launch and start their career journey.
More recently when hiring these smart and educated young people, I found myself having to train them on this concept. One kid with a fresh undergraduate degree from UCLA was unhappy with the starting salary we offered. He explained that he expected his degree from a prestigious program to result in a much higher starting salary. He said he had classmates making six figures as their starting salary.
I told him that although there might be those situations, that his classmates were probably embellishing their situation... or had accepted other circumstances like working for a startup with little job security.
But the primary lesson he and other young employees needed was to understand that they needed to grow their value to justify higher pay.
This kid has been with me for six years now. He was incrementally promoted over that time and got constant wage increases commensurate with his demonstrated ability to perform. He is a senior loan underwriter. My last salary action with him caused him to say "wow, I did not expect to get that big of an increase."
He is engaged and will eventually start a family and hopefully he teaches his kids this same lesson... that success requires a persistent climb in skills and capabilities... and only the masters of demanded disciplines make the top income.
Excellent reminder, John, for all of us. Regardless of how old we are, many havel gotten accustomed to the easy life, take it so for granted that we have no concept of what hard work once was, and now, getting off the couch to go the door to get delivery is nearly too much work! Pretty soon, we'll be feeling defeated and deprived if we don't have a robot slave to fetch that delivery and serve it to us on our silver T.V. tray.
Good piece John.
I wrote this a while ago. https://socialmisfit.substack.com/p/it-is-a-climb-not-a-privilege
Instant gratification and electronic entertainment kills the process of skills development that leads to economic success.
That reminds me of the old story about the artist asked to create a company logo. He gave them a high price, he worked on it for a couple of hours and gave them something fantastic, but they complained. "Hey, that only took you a couple of hours." His response was, "No, it took me twenty years of working on this stuff to be able to do something like that for you in a couple of hours."
Really well said, John. The problem, as I see it, is that we’ve got a generation that’s lived easier than any generation in the history of mankind. They’ve had everything handed to them: unlimited games, apps, etc on their hands, trophies for showing up, parents that spoiled the sh*t out of them, etc. now, when faced with the real world, they pushing back against hard work because they’ve never had to do it!
Personally, I want them to learn that hard work doesn’t guarantee success (as you so cogently pointed out) but hard work ALWAYS makes you better. Sure you may not make it to the NBA or the PGA, and you may not become a paid gamer or a partner a a huge hedge fund, but you will better. And that, in and of itself, is worth the effort.
That being said, they also need to learn that if they simply think they’re going to dial life in, the taxpayers aren’t going to be on the hook.
The people have gotten comfortable and the country has gotten comfortable. Even setting aside political differences, a lot of what people are howling about with Trump is just basic accountability that should have never stopped happening.
How dare ICE arrest illegals! - That's literally their job.
Look at all those government workers that are getting fired. So sad! -- Our tax dollars pay for that. Why would we want dead weight?
Oh no, able bodied people have to work to get Medicare! -- They should have always had to do that. Are we running a summer camp or a country?
Exactly. And you’re right, there’s too many on the right who now argue that more handouts is a good thing, if we just give them to different Americans (Senator Hawley and VP Vance, for example).
Related to this. I am the CEO of two businesses with a total of about 100 employees. One business I hire recent college graduates with a financial accounting degree and a head for that type of work.
My corporate leadership experience led me to a worldview where I see all human existence analogous to a hike or a climb. I graduated high school in 1978 and that ethos seemed common at the time. Most of my classmates at the time seemed to have the same orientation. They were working in part-time jobs while attending class... trying to finish whatever level of education they sought to obtain so they could launch and start their career journey.
More recently when hiring these smart and educated young people, I found myself having to train them on this concept. One kid with a fresh undergraduate degree from UCLA was unhappy with the starting salary we offered. He explained that he expected his degree from a prestigious program to result in a much higher starting salary. He said he had classmates making six figures as their starting salary.
I told him that although there might be those situations, that his classmates were probably embellishing their situation... or had accepted other circumstances like working for a startup with little job security.
But the primary lesson he and other young employees needed was to understand that they needed to grow their value to justify higher pay.
This kid has been with me for six years now. He was incrementally promoted over that time and got constant wage increases commensurate with his demonstrated ability to perform. He is a senior loan underwriter. My last salary action with him caused him to say "wow, I did not expect to get that big of an increase."
He is engaged and will eventually start a family and hopefully he teaches his kids this same lesson... that success requires a persistent climb in skills and capabilities... and only the masters of demanded disciplines make the top income.
Excellent reminder, John, for all of us. Regardless of how old we are, many havel gotten accustomed to the easy life, take it so for granted that we have no concept of what hard work once was, and now, getting off the couch to go the door to get delivery is nearly too much work! Pretty soon, we'll be feeling defeated and deprived if we don't have a robot slave to fetch that delivery and serve it to us on our silver T.V. tray.