Living the American Dream!

The American Dream is quite possibly the most poisonous Kool-Aide that the world has ever drank. I include the world, because it has spilled out into many many nations. Let's examine the American dream for a moment. Thomas Wolfe, the first person to actually coin the phrase in his book, "The Epic of America"said, "The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

Sound lovely doesn't it? Unfortunately, we have become a little short sighted and the dream HAS become a dream of 'motor cars and high wages'. I'm not sure when this transformation took place, or who started it, though I have my suspicions. What I do know that the dream to have more and more has lead to the nightmare of consumption... The nightmare of consumption obviously snowballed into the reality of today. The "need" to make all these purchases and consume all of these goods has found us right in the middle of the worst financial situation of all times. Enough people have written about it to clog up the interweb-tubes for days, so I won't.

A big part of this American Dream is "Any one can do ANYTHING"!!! Also sounds very lovely doesn't it? Biggest lie ever told by school teachers ever. No one can do 'ANYTHING' any more than they can do 'EVERYTHING'. And if anyone takes 30 nano-seconds to think about it, they realise the flaw in the logic. I'm not trying to be a downer, I'm just sayin'!

Thousands of people have a dream of starting their own business, as the idea of "Working for yourself" has become synonymous with freedom. HA.... DOUBLE HA! If you're thinking of 'hanging out your shingle' than I would urge you to talk to 3 small business owners, preferably owners that are in the 8th to 14th month of their business. Ask them what the 3 biggest mistakes they made are, and the 3 things they were most wrong about. If it doesn't come out naturally, then be sure to ask the following question.... "But it's great not having a boss right?"

To those of you who are to smart to take my advice... ALL THE BEST! :)
JLH