How Watered Down is Your DNA by Corporate America?

Warning! Long article ahead!

Today in social entrepreneurship we had a rousing lecture by our professor, Ron Lindorf, who is a highly successful entrepreneur. What follows is what he said to us, usually in his words.

Ron, at age 12, experienced his older brother's death, forcing him to confront the reality of mortality at a young age. This, he says, provided the ability to "not care what other people think. There's no bets on death." While in Jr. High, he started a successful window-washing business, employing two brothers from his school at $2 an hour while making $55 from each job. While pursuing his graduate degree in communications at BYU he bought Volkswagen cars for cheap, drove or trucked them down to California, and sold them there for more than a 700% markup. Needless to say his class attendance was not the best. In fact, in 6th grade his report card gave him full marks (a 1) for achievement but the lowest marks (a 3) for effort. He says, "I did exactly the amount of effort needed to get those 1s." Speaking of his entrepreneurial spirit, he said, "I'm not like those other guys. There are those entrepreneurs who are just smart. Captain of the track team, head boy in a group . . . they're the annoying ones. I'm a reluctant entrepreneur. Nobody would hire me and so I just thought, how can I generate some revenue?"

We don't make our own decisions often enough, Ron says. Growing up in the church, our decision making skill is sometimes crippled. We are a product of the thousands of small decisions we make during our lifetime, and there are plenty of bad decisions to make even in the framework of how our lives are planned out. "Is it better to marry the right person at the right time outside of the temple or to marry the wrong person at the wrong time inside of it?" Ethical decisions are some of the decisions that we don't see as often. Those that have made some bad decisions have learned early on how to make good decisions. We need to make more of our own decisions.

An important factor is an internal locus of control. This is what Ron developed in his high school years after his brother died. This is a critical component of a successful entrepreneur. Changing the world, not letting the world change you. Figuring out that "you don't have to let other people muck around with what you decide."

Ron gave the example of the L.A. Riots. During the riots, not a single 1st generation Korean immigrant with the entrepreneurial spirit had their business burned down. Why? Because the same spirit that pushed them to come to America and start their own business (usually a liquor store), to find a location, and to push for a better life for them and their children pushed them to climb on top of their roofs with AK-47s and illegal semi-automatics and pistols and shoot at the feet of anyone who looked like they were coming to cause trouble. They had that spirit that enables them to risk it all, and then to stand on the roof and defend it when their whole life's work, 10-15 years, is threatened. Not one of their businesses were touched.

"Some time long ago," Ron said, "we all had to decide. We were pitched two different ideas. One said, 'Look, it won't be hard. I mean, you can have security, you can go home at 5 and get a pay check every two weeks, there won't be any risk.' The other one said, 'Hey, it'll be hard. There'll be times when you fail, when you make mistakes, when you risk it all. There will be rough patches. You will have to work from nine to midnight every night after your wife goes to bed. But in the end it will be fair." Every measly human on this planet chose plan B. This is how Ron sees the world. So why can we go work at the post office and show up every morning and salute and go to work and then get off at five and do that for 40 years with nothing changing? We can get up and go to work among the devil's followers for 40 years and do nothing. But can we not come up with ideas about how to make it better? Can we stay an extra hour once in a while to get some things done? A person who does this, he says, will make it to leadership positions. Moving up within the system. Even that is following Christ. Sometimes it seems like forever that things don't happen and all the extra work does nothing. But somehow it will pay off.

Instant gratification. America doesn't know how to put it off. This part kind of led into a discussion about inflation and about how it's a silent tax on the people of the lowest income level and the middle class. So what do policy makers do? They can't tax the people who elect them or they're booted out. The upper level doesn't have enough wealth to keep up with a $10 trillion national debt. So what do we do? We let people overseas buy our bonds. Of course, as Ron says, "it's somewhat patriotic to hose the Chinese when they buy up our debt and then our dollar inflates." He also brought up the fact that as American car makers fire people over here and then outsource to other countries it actually creates a middle class in China and India. Bucketloads of people who would normally earn $1 a day are now earning $3-9 a day. Our world is going on sort of it's own wealth redistribution system.

All the people who originally came from England to this country were the ones who took the risk. They said goodbye to people who they'd never see again for some fantastic story they had heard, sold what they had and acquired a little capital, and risked everything. Every single person in the country has that in their DNA. Maybe it was from a couple generations ago.

So how watered down is your DNA by Corporate America? The fire of creating an income generating activity as a business has gone out of 90% of the people, statistically speaking. Of course, Ron recognizes that not everybody can be an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, this is how he sees the world to explain what he does to himself. The whole purpose of Corporate America, he says, is to preserve the status quo. "'I don't think we can do that.' ' Even if it increases your revenue by $4 million in a $10 million company?' 'Well....'
"It's because they like security! Go home at five and have security."

Entrepreneurs are weird. Talking to many people, Ron has found that entrepreneurs all have some sort of story. Or that all entrepreneurs have some sort of story. They all had to discover, or decide, rather, what he and Gibson (the other instructor of the class) discovered. They don't let what people think affect them. At all.

So are we going to work among the devil's followers our whole lives and lay down and die when the riots start? Or are we they type of person that crawls up on the roof with our AK-47 after risking everything to come to America and start a business? Internal locus of control! Don't let what other people think affect you! Trust more in the Atonement! We're supposed to make mistakes. Honest mistakes. Learn wisdom in thy youth. How? We have to learn through experience. Ron advises to work for somebody else for five years to make mistakes on somebody else's time and money. But don't just sit around!

Anyway, needless to say, an hour and a half of listening to this brilliant, accomplished, spiritual, driving, caring man was something.

Allegory of the...Freeway?

I was laying in bed the other night and thought this up and decided to turn on the light and write it in my journal. So here I thought I'd post it up, if I can decipher the handwriting that I wrote at midnight, and my handwriting is bad enough anyways! This will be copied word for word, because it's late right now, but in the future maybe I'll tweak it a little and improve it and maybe add some other ideas I've had since then, because this can be expanded. Additionally, both the real story and the symbolical meaning is sometimes incorporated into this mesh of words, so ideally the story will come first and then the explanation later, but that's a project for a different time. Here it is:

Life is like a highway. Sometimes we get off the exit and detour from our true destination, which is the celestial kingdom. Sometimes interchanges come up, and people take the roads to the other kingdoms. When we get off the narrow, straight freeway, sometimes the access to the on-ramp is blocked from the off-ramp. Sometimes we need to drive a little ways and then pop a U-turn (repent means to turn around) and bypass the roadblock through the help of our in-car navigation system kind of like OnStar - sometimes the volume is low - sometimes we can't remember where the volume control is - sometimes our arms don't seem long enough and we really have to work to reach it. However, a voice does come out of the navigation system, telling the will of Him who watches the position of our and every car on the satellite tracking system, overseeing legions of helpers recording every turn we make. He waits at our destination. Often we need the help of "officers" along the way, those who wear a badge of leadership and priesthood, those who venture out into the muddlesome places and attempt to direct those who are weaving ll over the road back to the main highway. Sometimes other officers (or perhaps the same one) regulate entrance to the highway by approving returners. They stand by a car wash, for being clean is of utmost importance on the highway. Additionally, it is sometimes a junior officer in training who actually raises the bar to let a freshly washed car onto the freeway. Sometimes it is hard for a car to find its way back because of the detours, but I testify there is an unblocked on-ramp for every car, if it chooses to seek it long and hard enough. Billboards along the road attempt to entice cars with their siren's song to take the next exit, but those that learn to listen and enjoy the soft music coming from the navigation radio never have need for the billboards and ignore them. Every week we pull into a rest area and refuel. Sometimes it seems the road will never end. Those in the know know that the real trick to getting to the destination is driving until your car wears out and collapses, for as we all know, roads never really end - everything is interconnected. After your car collapses, JC Grace Towing will come, evaluate your car, and decide whether it is worthy for the destination. If so, it will be taken the rest of the way by the towing company. The executive of the towing company is the only person with the key to the compound to which we all aspire. The number of dings on the front from giving those in front a nudge in troubled times might be evaluated, as well as any unwashed spots. Some try to crash early, while others take an exit and drive, trying to get away, but their car will eventually wear out too, and then they'll be in a pickle, because they will be so far away from the range of the towing company they will have to stay and roast and burn in the desert. Those who are closer but not on the freeway will have to pay a fee to be towed. Highway travelers get the service for free.

News Article both Saddens and Brightens

Published on June 1st, a recent New York Times article discusses President George W. Bush's recent commencement address at Furman University. My personal discussion on the article and event appears below.

I am saddened by the faculty at Furman.

Well, not all of the faculty.

First of all, let me explain what I believe. People have the right to disagree with the President. People have the right to their own opinions. People have the privilege of signing a petition sheet:

More than 200 Furman professors and students signed a statement criticizing Bush administration policies and the Iraq war.

See, that's OK. That is fine. What gets me is when people don't show respect for the office of President of the United States, the highest office attainable in this country. Nobody but those who have sweat and labored, and yes, even lied to get there (not something I'm endorsing - completely the opposite) know how difficult, how challenging, and how pressured the President is. One may or may not agree with the President, but one should still respect the work and the will of the people in force behind him (I'll say that until there actually is a her President, then I'll worry about political correctness). The President is the Cheif Citizen. He is the Chief Executive, the CEO of the United States. He is the Chief Legislator, setting the course for public policy. He is the Chief Diplomat. He is the leader of the country, and regardless of one's views, should be held in a higher esteem and treated better than he is.

Furthermore, look at the message that President Bush is giving the students. That is just the sort of direction the country needs in these troubling times, regardless of his actions in Iraq. Let's get the country headed in the right direction.

This does kind of show though - as a coworker of my mother said:
The Republicans want to control nothing but one's morals; the Democrats want to control everything but one's morals.

When it comes to morals, I wish the country would choose to have good morals to begin with. Then the whole conundrum of whether to force morals on anybody wouldn't have to be dealt with.