Just the Way It Is

Downtown Alamo, Georgia
Even though I have an MBA money is not one of those things that motivate me. But I do live in the real world where fairies and magic dust can only be found for a price down in Orlando. My focus has always been the “little guy”, while my education focused on looking at things from 50,000 ft. I always questioned fairness of pure profit. In other words, putting people out of work may be sound business practice, but is it morally right? 

 As you can see I’m a pretty crappy business person, at least at the positions my degree aspires too. Still one of the other things my education inspired me to was having an innovative entrepreneurial spirit. Let’s face it manufacturing jobs of our fathers were few and far between. Big business is now a multi-national thing with manufacturing taking place overseas; and the only thing we’re left with is limited distribution and corporate HQ. 

 As manufacturing reseeded, so too did the other industries that benefitted from it. What your average American worker was left with was the service industry and a few skilled trades. I apologize for painting such a bleak portrait of how things are, but here in small town America that’s just the way it is. Education and economic stimulus can only do so much. Our children are pursuing an education greater than high school, but at what cost. First they face crushing debt from the “get go” and in order to put those degrees to use, they’re going to Atlanta, Charlotte, and Orlando; not Alamo, Georgia. So what then is small town America left with, an aging population yearning for something that’s never coming back. Or is it? 

 We have to adapt to the new economy, we have to either accept the crumbs thrown to us by big corporations and big government. Or create our own stimulus package and pull yourselves up by the bootstraps. If you put your mind to work and think critically, you can come up with some innovative ways to make a living. The thing is you have to work at it, with the 500 pound Gorilla in that sentence being WORK. 

 A prime example of this is a friend of mine that owns a local business. She has seven children some of whom are out of the house. The point is, she could have easily sat on her hands and let Uncle Sam take care of her. Instead she went to Technical College and learned a trade. She then took those skills and invested in her own business and for the five years I’ve known her has contributed to this community. These are the individuals that looked at their situation and done something about it. 

 Look at your situation, for several years I looked at mine and knew I could do better. I invested in my education, and while I may not never manage a Fortune 500 or a Fortune 500,000 company for that matter; I still carry that innovative entrepreneurial spirit. So over the years my plans have changed, but the idea was still there; to create for myself and my family a legacy to build on. My legacy may never be a Gates or a Walton legacy but it will be one I can call my own. 

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