© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
Some Americans believe that if you do more, you should get more. Likewise, if you do less, you should get less. Others do not embrace this notion. They are swayed by our society’s relatively new socialist tendencies toward a belief that a citizen should get what someone else decides that person needs. This is not a theoretical issue for me; the first is the way I live.
My money-making life started when my military father was transferred to
They charged 50 cents a house, so I started lower to break into the business. They rushed through the job because they wanted to do a lot of houses. My mother told me to do a good job and not worry about how many houses I did.
A kindly lady in the next block accepted my offer to shovel the snow off of her walk and driveway for a quarter. I made sure every speck of snow was off and then went around back and did the back walk unbidden.
I looked my work over proudly and rang the doorbell. All done. She handed me the quarter and I said thanks. Then she handed me a dollar tip and said I had done a great job and she wanted me to come back the next time it snowed.
At the next house I did the same job and got my quarter and then two more as a tip. I did four houses that afternoon, and the owners of three tipped me. One did not and I smiled all the same and offered to come back when it snowed again. I had a loyal group that counted on me.
Shortly after that, I got a paper route. One of my customers said it really was appreciated when I put the paper on the front steps. While it took more time, it became my trademark. More tips came my way and I learned a lesson about doing a good job.
My father was a master photographer who taught photography for the Air Force. I learned photography from him. He retired and we settled in
One day I took a good basketball picture. My father nudged me that the local paper might buy it. I did not have a paper route and
They ran it. I was thrilled, even though the caption said, “Photo by Sports Editor Stan Green.” I went down to collect my money. The front desk clerk pointed out that Stan Green apparently took the photo. I asserted that I took it and had the negative. Mr. Green happened by. He looked carefully at the picture and noticed that he was standing in one corner of the picture.
We established a friendship and I became a photo stringer. I went to events he did not. They bought some and passed on others. It is how I made the money to go to college and while I was in college.
Entrepreneurs are the engine of prosperity
My background of making the money I wanted by increasing my effort continues to this day. I have never worked for minimum wage, in fact; I have very rarely worked for wages. Rather, I have spent my life in occupations where the more I did, the more I got.
It is a life some relish and others detest. Our country was founded on the concept of doing more to get more. Work longer, harder and smarter to prosper. But American society seems to be at a crossroads where working harder and getting more money is discouraged by tax policy and general ridicule of the wealthy.
Rich people who gain their wealth by working harder, longer and smarter are not revered any longer in our society. There is a presumption of rich people as all being scoundrels who have stolen their wealth.
But know this: The engine of prosperity in our society is people who are not just working for wages. I am not slurring those who do not wish that life, because I know it is not a life for everyone. Many entrepreneurs work longer, harder and smarter than the work-a-day folks and, for reasons beyond their control, they do not prosper.
Most are the way they are and cannot help themselves. They are compelled to that life. I certainly am. As the old west saying goes, I am, “Boss of no one and bossed by no one.”
However, with the socialist move to redistribute the wealth of our society, we stand at the chasm of losing those with a desire to work as entrepreneurs. I hope it does not happen. There are many lessons to learn when you work jobs where you get more when you do more.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.