Illustration From Real Life Example
Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, or another way to say, a family of small business operators, I was exposed to business management training by example or by tutorial. For instance, my grandfather an operator of a fishing crew, was continuously mentioning to me, even while I was a teenager, “don’t let your men bunch up”. In other words, when you have workers, don’t let them become ineffective by becoming distracted from their actual tasks and the best way to prevent that is to not organize the work space for an inordinate amount of distraction or socializing.
We Live In A World Of Technology Distractions
In order to be productive, one has to keep distractions and time-wasting to a minimum. In the 21st century our bodies, home, office, and other work spaces are cluttered with notification dings from many sources. For all the good that communications on demand brings to our world, it has the potential for enormous distraction and reduction in productivity, or an increase in the making of errors or mistakes. As my wife and I do exercise walking through our neighborhood each day, I am constantly struck by the various work crew teams doing, roofing, gardening, remodeling, etc. and inevitably at least one team member is on their phone texting or talking. Or come up to a traffic light and the driver in front is distracted by their phone and need a horn to realize the light has turned green. What is the manager of a business or work crew to do in order to restore full productivity? Well, it takes a leader to set a good example, you need to start by managing your own disciplines. What is the old adage, “do as I do not as I say”. Are you setting a correct example so that you can demand that your employees follow your example?
Equity or Equality
The capitalistic marketplace of America is based on reward for performance. While I haven’t studied this intently, it has been drawn to my attention, there is a new mindset arriving in our nation that no-one should excel but rather lay back and take it easy. This is intended so that others who don’t want to be self-disciplined and work hard for reward, won’t feel bad. But the result of that mindset is stagnation, no growth and falling back, the opposite of success. This new way of thinking is becoming more and more prevalent. Evidently, there is a new term creeping into our political narrative and it is equity. Equity is replacing equality. Equality is about everyone having a fair opportunity to succeed, whereas equity is about everyone having equal outcomes whether or not they are willing to work for it, this is a dangerous slope.
While living in Scandinavia, there was a term, or philosophy I learned about called:
Janteloven (the law of Jante) at its simplest describes the way that all Norwegians (and in fact, other Scandinavians too) behave: putting society ahead of the individual, not boasting about individual accomplishments, and not being jealous of others. … Janteloven is more a set of unspoken social norms.
The Actual American Dream
I think as a country we have to be on guard against this socialistic way of thinking. I think if there is a thing that can distract from building a successful business, this is certainly one. We have always been a hard-working country and hard-working people that rewards success. Let’s be careful America, like the proverbial frog in slowly heated up water, we won’t notice we are being stifled and being led to a death sentence. The American Dream has always been about the freedom to choose, and the opportunity to achieve. Why do so many people want to come to America? I believe for freedom and opportunity to exercise their own initiative. Of course there are always the exceptions and some come for a handout. I pray to God that our nation will not listen to the voices that extol the virtues of socialism, which has always proven to be a dead end.
Let’s pursue the ACTUAL AMERICAN DREAM, the freedom and opportunity to succeed. Come on entrepreneurs, where are you?
Larry Anderson – COACH
Professional Life Coach 