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The Oldest Discipline, the Only Solution: Work
A friend recently asked me, "How is the economy affecting you?" I told him, I have two things going for me most Americans don't have:
1) I know how to work, and
2) I am willing to do "wit" (whatever it takes) to get the job done when working!
The marketplace is going to punish, without discretion, those that don't know how to work, don't appreciate work and who don't do wit--whatever it takes-- when they work. The punishment will expand until it disciplines all those not willing to work in order to get a solution. Work is the oldest discipline of the marketplace and the only solution to the current market place.
Our ancestors prided themselves on, and knew the importance of hard work and took pride in this accomplishment. Long days at work was the norm whereby men and women alike did whatever it took to get the job done! Work was appreciated, respected and expected. Over the last four decades or so work has become an ugly word in our culture. Since the late sixties and the psychiatric, "blame someone else", influence on our culture where the advice doled out suggests our parents were the cause of our problems, that all of mankind has some kind of "chemical imbalance" and our shortcomings and problems are inherited. Every human deficit is labeled a disease and popping a pill becomes the quick-fix to everything. Lowering levels of responsibility and increasing levels of blame extend itself to all sorts of other diluted solutions like no-money-down purchases, no-cost credit cards, get-rich-quick-with stocks, unconscious/blind faith 401k investing, no-money-down home purchases, and "I deserve what everyone else has regardless of my financial condition".
The current culture has forgotten the importance of hard work and personal responsibility as a solution to problems! Men and women alike look for easy quick-fixes to every problem and for someone else to blame. We have gone from a work culture to an entitlement culture. Work is the only solution to solving problems and increases an individual's sense of self worth and self respect!
The marketplace always disciplines those that will not discipline themselves. Individuals, businesses and entire industries are being punished for years of lowering responsibility levels, get-rich-quick thinking, blind investing, free credit, sense of entitlement and the unwillingness to work!
Predictions:
1) Companies and industries that can only sell their products by offering free credit to consumers will go bankrupt.
2) Individuals that don't produce far in excess of what is expected will find themselves in unemployment lines.
3) Companies that can not sell products in quantities great enough at prices high enough will find themselves perpetually undercapitalized.
4) Management that does not insist on and ensure that their people work to achieve targets will be demoted back into the work force where they probably won't be able to find a job.
The 20th Century psycho-babble doctrines of 'live in the moment," problems are disorders and solutions are quick fixes (like popping a pill) have failed us. We have become a culture of pill popping, deluded, debt- ridden, get rich quick, entitlement society where someone else is always to blame.
While it is convenient to blame earlier generations for our shortcomings, had we inherited their work ethic, their appreciation for saving money and not living beyond their means, we wouldn't have our current problems.
Work may not be in vogue, it may not be glamorous, and it may not be popular, but it is the ONLY thing that will get you through these times and it is the universal way to increase an individual's sense of self respect and self worth!
The "fairy tale" credit has disappeared, the Goldilocks economy is over, and blaming won't advance your financial situation. Maybe the drug companies will come up with new labels for your problems and then medicate you into further levels of irresponsibility. The new labels will be: "unemployment disorder", "compulsive entitlement disorder", "debt to income imbalance disorder", "bipolar spending disorder", "lazy-ism addiction," etc.
Get to work America and be willing to do whatever it takes to get your work done. You will feel better about yourself, you will be respected by others and you will survive the current economic situation!
Grant Cardone, Author of Sell to Survive.
Follow Grant Cardone on Twitter: www.twitter.com/grantcardone
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I think some of the comments against Grants Post must be from people who didn't read the post entirely.
He said Hard work and being willing to DO WHAT IT TAKES TO SURVIVE MAN. Don't stay in a dead end job for the sake of Health Care!!! Is that what your life is all about security. Besides the health care your going to get doesn't work any way. Doing what it takes means ; Maybe change careers,Re-educate yourself,get some new training.Lets face it the the Chinese,Indians,Mexicans are doing what Grant is saying.That's why they are taking your job away.Its becoming a WORLD ECONOMY .BE a leader or find one like Grant and follow him and quit complaining. We play life small because we don't want to be responsible for all the crap around us. And by the way Grant is a FAT-CAT because he applied these Ideas .He came from nothing and nowhere and made it happen.If your grandpa or great grandpa heard you talk like that he would take a switch to your behinds!!! LETS not be like ROME and let this great nation succumb to the wills and ideas of entitlement. Your Entitled to breathe and that's about it so lets get to work and clean up this country
Very good post.
You know, the United States of America is the nation that almost-singlehandedly won World War Two. It had the domestic-only production capacity with which to do it, and it was much too far away to bomb.
Those factories are still there. Closed. Why?
I own a forty-year old vacuum cleaner that was built like a battleship. Still works great. I know where the factory was that made it. Closed. Why?
We bought goods from 10,000 miles away and paid for it with what turns out to be basically phony money. We sent the ships back loaded with rocks, creating very nice breakwaters in Japan and China. Why?
Henry Ford paid high wages. He knew that the people who worked in his factories had to earn enough to be able to buy Ford cars, and that's what they did. Neither the flow of goods nor the flow of capital stretched 10,000 miles.
The sooner we stop wringing our hands, the better. There is opportunity galore. And there is a lot of work to do. This is a nation of more than 300 million people, and bursting with both infrastructure and natural resources. We can better ourselves, and this time, not wreck the ecosystem doing it.
And something I almost forgot. 'You are poor because you are lazy' is a ready excuse of the wealthy to justify disregarding the needs of the less fortunate. Listen to even heirs of family fortunes who never worked a day themselves say exactly this.
Yeah right. Work yourself to exhaustion. Than you will no longer be able to think rationally about the credit crisis. That is exactly what the kleptocrats in government want you to.
Speak for yourself
The "do whatever it takes" value system allows a person to behave unethically. If profit is valued over ethics, then violations of human dignity occur. Think about it.
I think he has oversimplified this issue. When I lived in the North East, EVERY single coworker had a second job. I didn't have to because I was shacked up with a lying lawyer. We had adequate income for me not to have to work 15 hour days. I think my coworkers knew PLENTY about hard work. Now that I type this, I have to say I find this article offensive. What does he know about hard work?
January of 2008, I was dropped from my job. The day I came in for my final check, I saw a THREE page list of "Part-time NO benefits New Hires" on the security check in desk. HMmm was there a link between the two week anniversary when I would have added benefits from the minimal health coverage I was granted at hire?
I used to work in a high tech industry where the current drive is to offshore everything you can. I can work my butt off and still find, at the end of the day, that management has decided to hire someone on the other side of the world to do my job at a fourth the pay. I would accept less money, as I have accepted less insurance coverage, more hours, less respect, and more outlandish expectations, but my mortgage company doesn't have the same view and won't reduce the mortgage on the house I own in a market where no one can sell houses.
Frankly, I'd love to see the trail of corpses that probably dot the rise of your fortune. Survival of the fittest sounds great, but has little to do with living in the real world.
I'm just waiting for the day when the many small stockholders tell these companies, if you can outsource Jim and Jane the employees, we bet you can find some third worlder with an MBA to work for peanuts as the CEO.
Where are you so you can theorize about how much we work? it's insulting. Everyone I know works hard, all day long, all week along, year in, year out. This notion that we can work ourselves out of any problem is naive- if it were true the fairy-tale economy, as you put it, would not have been a problem for this country.
Mr. Cardone,
The marketplace punished millions of our hard-working, responsible, whatever-it-takes ancestors during the Great Depression. Punished them with a vengeance.
Yes it normally takes hard work to get ahead, but many people work oh so very hard and still get the ladder pulled out from under them.
And there you have it... life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Noted! My teeth are bared and my claws are raised. WIT, baby, WIT!
Um... You're kinda all over the road with this article. It was interesting, but...
First, you praise the virtues of hard work. This is great, and all, but it's kind of low-hanging fruit; who's going to champion the lazy, the arrogant, and those who feel entitled to make a living without working? Is there really a counterclaim here? What about workers like me, trapped into an unsatisfying job because the lack of healthcare makes taking a risk on a new career unwise? Am I lazy, or hardworking, or none of the above? You neglect the outliers, and this affects the credibility of your argument.
Second, you have perhaps undue faith in the free market. You state that the market will "discipline" those who fail to live up to your work ethic. Perhaps so, but unfortunately, the "market" has also shown a disturbing tendency to "discipline" the just and hard working (cf.: outsourcing, downsizing, and obscene CEO-to-worker pay ratios). In fact, if we've learned one lesson from the recent economic troubles, it's that the market is not exactly the rational, noble beast we all pretend that it is.
So, while it's an interesting article, I'd like to see it calmed down and focused, and I'd like to see some dissenting thought about whether "the market" is really the best guiding force. Perhaps another ideal -- such as "the greatest good for the greatest number" -- would be a better mantra than "the market knows best."
Actually, Ouroborous, the key mantra here is "whatever it takes."
If you don't like your job, do whatever it takes to get another one. And once you get it, do whatever it takes to keep it and advance.
It is rare to find a worker who will give you more than what is expected. As a boss, you do whatever it takes to keep him. This is you can succeed and even prosper in today's uncertain times.
There is no one reading this who can't do well in a bad economy if they try.
Thanks, Grant, for your incisive and uncompromising article.
People who will do whatever it takes are a dime a dozen. In my town, doing whatever it takes includes breaking into your house and stealing all your stuff.
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