The 2017 American Workforce Dream Team Is Kicking Some Ass!
Happy Labor Day to our American workforce! As an entrepreneur and company owner, this holiday is very special to me and my wife because it’s the day we get to honor those hard working men and women that have made the strength, prosperity, and well-being of this great country of ours possible.
I told a newspaper reporter, during an interview, an interesting answer to a question he asked that at first made me sound conceded but as he thought about my answer, he was able to digest the meaning of it. The question was,
“Could you ever be an employee in a company again?”
I said, “No, I could never be an employee again because after being self-employed for so long, I wouldn’t make a very good employee. Not because I’m above it, but because I’m kind of below it!”
The reporter had a stark look on his face at first but then realizing what I meant was, I would never be able to again, match what it takes to work for another person. I guess it sounds a bit elitist to say it but, I sit in pure awe of my employees and what they do for me every day! These are amazing people that love the work they are doing and love to create value for what I have created. I see it in the companies of friends of mine and their employees as well. These men and women that work for us and give us 40+ hours of their week year after year just flat amaze me! I could never be that great again, these people would work me under the table! The work ethic and craftsmanship that a man or a woman with a job has, is something that I only have the qualification to stand in the shadows of and watch. That’s how good they are.
For centuries throughout the world, wealth and prosperity was an inherited right of only the royal court and only given to those who wanted it, to be attained by force or conquest. Many a dictator, kings and overlords conquered the lands throughout Europe and Asia to swallow up territories and control commerce and the people. War and unrest were the only way to get power and wealth at that time and the common people that lived in the areas conquered had to concede to the new reign.
But then came a long a new country, a country of work, effort, and money! A country whose foundation was made of the word – achievement. A new breed of men and women in this new country came along and created something that no other country had dared try, even though they knew about the concept, they never took the chance to see what a free people could do. The American workforce was born! This, my friends, is the proudest distinction of Americans and, I would choose because it contains all the others, the fact that they were the first people to exercise the phrase, “to make a living.” No other nation had words in their language that could describe the act of making a living by effort. Men and women had always seen money as a static quantity but in this new America, money was quantitative in relation to effort and no longer was the common alchemist working to turn base metals into gold, and no longer was the conqueror taking by force. Men and women were now free to turn effort and labor into money. The American worker was the first in the world to grasp the concept that a free people could, by choice, assemble the greatest civilized nation on earth based on the words, “achievement and production” and use the words “to make a living”, as the essence of human morality.
Production is the ebb and lifeblood of humanity. People, by nature, can’t be insects and only produce by instinct. We have an urge to produce for production’s sake and for no other reason but to improve on some aspect of mankind. If you want to see the true spirit of the American worker, just ask what their jobs are like when they work for a failing company or an inept company owner. These works hate their jobs if the company is being run insufficiently. Why should they care, they are getting a steady paycheck and if they just keep their noses clean they can continue to work and get paid. But that is not the way the American worker sees it. There are no others on the face of the earth that are as proud of what they do for a living as the man or woman with a job in these United States. They hate to see their hard efforts spinning its wheels in a muck of inadequacy. They must produce and produce with superlative efficiently for the gain, and as a result of American work ethic and ingenuity – That is their instinct!
Today, the workforce has become very polarizing and the forces between employer and employee are getting ever tighter. Technology has made this world move at perplexing speeds never seen before and has created a pressure that is pushing down way too hard on an already unstable fault line. Words like, – Fair pay, livable wages, Universal Basic Income and employee/wage market ratios are being thrown around without concern. Union strikes, corporate greed, 1%er’s, $15/hr. minimum wages and automation and Artificial Intelligence treating jobs seem to be all that’s headlining the business world media. As I read these article based mostly on dissection among the workers and the owners, I can’t help but think the relationship between the two of them has yet, never been matched on any level, or ever will. Just look at what we have created since the industrial revolution! From drive belts made of buffalo hide running machinery harvesting crops to Siri finding the best pizza place in town, the American worker has made it all possible!
I ask my fellow entrepreneurs and company owners to join me and my wife on this day in recognizing what your people are doing for you! You have the best in the world right there on your payroll, the American workforce “dream team” that foreign company owner’s look upon with envious eyes, and -they are making you look fantastic. Reward them greatly and treat them like family! Even though your accountant considers them a liability on paper, your employees are truly your most important asset! (and I think you know it)
Daniel J Bockman
