I took our dog Buster to my brother the vet a couple weeks ago for
a check-up and we were talking about business. As
he has done for thirty years, he asked me how it was. I said it
had been just fine, trending back up nicely with the Dow at 11,200 until
the Dark
Day of May 6, 2010 when the Masters of the Universe took the Dow
down 1010 points in 15 minutes and traumatized every single finance
office of every single Fortune company in the world, causing the doors
on their largest expense, Staffing, to slam shut.
He chuckled and said, "Yeah, those CFOs said to one another, 'We
didn't know we were playing in a casino - we gotta' figger this one
out,'" and then went on to remark, "I was on a horse call
yesterday and the client asked me 'How's business?' In thirty years of
practice nobody ever asked me how's business until the last year or so.
Now everybody asks."
His partner Lucinda just so then happened to peek in the door of the
exam room to ask Tom something and as she did so, Tom asked, "How
about you, Lucinda? Do people ask you how business is?"
All the time," she replied, "It's weird."
"So how is business?" I asked the two of them.
"We're holding steady, up a little over last year but I can tell
you this - we scrap and claw for every bit of that business. We're
working a lot of hours and doing a lot of advertising and I even sent
some drugs back last month to improve our cash flow. I've never done
that before," Tom said.
Lucinda nodded.
Tom went on. "I get the feeling from people that they're really
scared now and they're looking anywhere and everywhere they can for
affirmation that things are improving. They're not," he finished.
"Wait 'til that unemployment extension runs out next week. It's
gonna get ugly...we haven't seen the worst."
Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine who just started a new
sales development job for an industrial equipment manufacturer. I've
known Debbie for 25 years and I could hear concern in her voice.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I'm feeling some frustration getting going," she answered.
I set these beautiful appointments for these guys with these
world-class companies and they don't follow up. I don't understand it.
What else can I do?" she almost wailed.
"You can do your job Debbie and that's all you can do. If your
success is tied to their performance, and this is how they're behaving,
then you're probably screwed."
"What's wrong with them?" she asked, sounding more like she
was talking to herself than to me.
"If you'd ask them, Debbie, they'd say there's nothing wrong with
them and in all probability find fault with the job you're doing."
"Isn't that the truth?" she exclaimed. "I don't get
people who don't want to do their jobs. I'm so happy to have this one
I'm kicking my heels! Don't they have bills to pay? I would've lost my
house by now if I hadn't been willing to work like a dog these last
three years...by the way, how's your business?"
I gave her the same lowdown I gave Tom and she pretty much said the
same thing as what Tom said about things getting much worse.
I stopped her and said, "You know what Debbie? We're going to be
okay. And you know why we're going to be okay?"
Without waiting for her to answer, I continued, "Because we work
hard. Those guys who don't follow up on your leads, and I know from
experience with you just how excellent those leads are likely to be -
are going to be the ones who lose their houses. They're going to lose
their houses because they don't know how to work like dogs. You and me -
we do."
"Isn't that the truth?" she chimed in. "My neighbor,
he's about 40, works in consulting for IBM from home; makes about
$150,000 a year and half the time he's out on a boat with his family or
on some far-away vacation. It's like he's living in some isolated
bubble. I don't get it."
"Those are the ones who are gonna fall furthest, Debbie. This
story isn't over. These guys with jobs and benefits and all the perks
are gonna wake up some day and say 'What happened?' as the Sheriff comes
to put them out on the stoop. They're not going to find another job
that allows them to work 20 hours a week for a full-time paycheck,
provide benefits and retirements to their family members. They're not
going to be able to coast any longer."
"The fabric of this country has changed," she said. "It's
not like it used to be."
No. It's not. The sense of entitlement that many people carry in
this country is destroying this country.
There's an old saying you don't hear much anymore: "Shirt sleeves
to shirt sleeves in three generations." What it means is that
someone starts out in work sleeves and succeeds enough to allow their
children to wear silk sleeves. Those wearing the silk sleeves usually
abandon the opportunity to do anything with the means that provided
those silk sleeves and, ultimately waste it, leaving nothing but shirt
sleeves for the third generation to wear.
"Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations."
We're witnessing the transition from silk sleeves to shirt sleeves
but it's being exacerbated and accelerated by an out-of-control
governmental spending policy that translates to little more than
taxation without representation. Not that we deserve better - the
majority of the American population sits idly by and allows these
silk-stockinged Washington lawmakers to have at as they might with our
futures and the futures of our children.
The difference in this emerging shirt sleeve generation is that it is
crippled with debt. The only way through debt (unless you're willing
to consider sovereign default, an interesting and as this goes to press
becoming an ever more-topical subject) is through hard, productive
work. Hard, productive work will solve most of life's ills. I'm not
convinced the American population is incapable of this but it's going to
take a real heave-ho and willingness to put our shoulders to the grind
stone. It's going to take a sea-change in expectations. Are you ready
(and willing) to do that to allow our children to flourish?