He didn’t do it. He didn’t perform the surgery, he
didn’t make the prosthesis, he didn’t force him to go outside and play with his
brother, he didn’t change the rules of the International Olympic Commission, he
didn’t pick the South African track team, he didn’t make the uniforms, or the
blades, or fly the airplane that got the team to London. In fact, once you consider it all,
Oscar Pistorius didn’t do much of anything. At least if you use President Obama’s logic.
Because that
is exactly President Obama’s argument about business. Substitute mentors, parents, business partners,
infrastructure and joint ventures and you have precisely the same
argument. Let’s face it, that’s a
pretty goofy argument.
The simple truth, and one
understood by everyone who watched even a few minutes of the Olympics or read
even one or two articles about it, is that Mr. Pistorius is a remarkable guy,
with a lot of grit, and we should all tip out hat to him. What he has done is remarkable. And HE did it.
Every step has been a struggle,
every step a challenge, every step an opportunity to quit. No one else kept him from quitting, no
one else did the training, no one else ran those races. It is an example we need to take to
heart, and no one more than President Obama.
The fact is, the market place is
as unforgiving as the running track.
If you don’t put in the time, don’t train, don’t watch your diet, then
you won’t win, you won’t place, you won’t even show. We all know that the small
businesses fail at alarming rates: 50% fail after 5 years, 70% fail after 10
years. But here is a better
statistic: the average billion dollar per year business lasts 12 years. Only 12 years. Of course, there are some that get
bailed out by the government, and some get absorbed by other companies or merge
with other companies, and in some of those cases the stockholders do well. But many just unravel, and fade away –
even when everyone is working hard some don’t make it.
Consider that of the original Dow
Jones 30 Industrials of a century ago, only one remains on the list – General
Electric. The others are
gone. Or consider how many
aircraft companies were in business in the US in 1945 and how many remain
today. Airlines, shipping firms,
steel corporations, etc., etc., etc.
They get started, some survive, some thrive, and then many unravel and
die off, their remains bought up by their competitors.
What part of that did the
government help in? What part of
that was a ‘gimme,’ a term with which the First Golfer should be familiar? The problem with many politicians is
that they have so little exposure to the real world and the real economy that
these facts mean nothing to them.
For many in the White House, the idea of a Ray Kroc risking every dime
he had, and committing every waking moment for years and years, to buy five
hamburger restaurants from the McDonald brothers is an alien concept. More disturbingly, they don’t seem to
see that Kroc’s acceptance of risk, his willingness to not accept things as
they are, but to act on his own despite what anyone else might think or say or
do, is the essential foundation stone of progress – economic, technological or
cultural.
Oscar Pistorius would understand
Ray Kroc, and vice versa. The
problem is, President Obama and his staff understand neither of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment