Achieving the American Dream
Choosing Wealth or Productivity
Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.
Have we forgotten what it takes to achieve the American Dream? Our
ancestors have fought and died in several wars from the American Revolution
through two World Wars to protect our freedom to choose and enable us to build
what is best for ourselves and our families. Yet, we seem to have forgotten
what it takes to be truly successful and fulfilled in a nation of opportunity
and freedom. Maybe, we still believe that every American road is paved with
gold and any path is okay as long as it leads to riches and wealth. However,
our forefathers and our immigrant ancestors had a different view of America.
The America
of our forefathers and predecessors was built upon a great work ethic and
dedication to freedom and equality that made them strong and set an example for
all to come. Our forefathers did not take the superhighway to financial success
and money was not their main goal when they decided to break away from King
George and the British Empire to build a free nation.
The Father of our Country, George Washington, could have chosen the life of a
wealthy Aristocrat. Instead he chose to serve his country and to help build a
new nation. Benjamin Franklin worked in public service for many years without
taking a paycheck. And, when our immigrant ancestors came to the shores of America,
they were looking for a chance to pursue a life free from oppression or hunger.
If they thought that American roads were paved with gold, they soon discovered it
was hard work that was the true pathway to success. Also, many of our ancestors
learned to help and depend on each other as they settled into ghettos and
communities in our cities and suburbs. However, somewhere along the line our
values of hard work, sense of community and freedom have changed into an
obsession to find the superhighway to financial wealth at the expense of
others.
In John Jakes’ book, The Americans, Teddy Roosevelt tells a
young doctor trying to choose the best road to success in life that sooner or
later he will have to make a choice between a life of productivity or service
and the fast track to wealth. For a time it looks as though the doctor will
choose the money road as he meets and courts a young woman whose rich family
will raise his social status as he finds work treating the wealthy in the high
rent district with their daily aches and pains. However, he never forgot the
words of Roosevelt. And, when he met another young woman
who was a doctor’s assistant in one of the poorest areas of the inner city, he
soon had to make a choice between a life of real service where he was truly
valued and needed and a life of comfort and wealth giving placebos to rich old
women with phony ailments. Finally, realizing the differences between the two
women and after spending time performing productive surgery and preventive
healthcare where he was needed most, he makes his father proud as he chooses a
life of service and rejects the money. As Roosevelt
said, “When it comes to values sooner or later you will have to make a choice.”
Today, in America
we are at a similar crossroads. We seem to have forgotten that the real road to
success is not the expressway to financial wealth, but is the pathway to
service and productivity where we are needed most based upon our skills and
abilities. The crisis on Wall Street is symptomatic of a deeper problem
regarding the changing of American Values. We are forgetting the value of the work
ethic that our ancestors and forefathers used to build America
when we choose the fast track to financial success. This fast track can only lead to
greed, financial turmoil and eventual disaster as it is not what is needed to
build our organizations and our country. Our nation is built upon service and
the hard work of the everyday citizen from blue collar to management on our
assembly lines and in our service agencies. It is not built upon the high risk
buying and selling on Wall Street. Yet, when the choice is given to our young
people as they graduate colleges, too many choose the fast track to wealth over
service and productivity. There are many reasons for this including the huge
bills of higher education that have to be paid. But, building wealth is not the
same as building productivity and our organizations are suffering because of
it.
Teddy Roosevelt would be appalled by the
fact we have allowed the situation to get so out of hand that our very economic
system is at risk because we forgot the value of true productivity that is built
upon hard work and service to each other in some way. Instead, our self-interest
has created an attitude that strongly suggests greed is somehow good and
building wealth is the American way. This is a great distortion and insult to
the values of our forefathers and the work ethic of our ancestors. And, the
country that they built through real service and productivity deserves better
than unbridled self-interest, out of control buying and selling, and wealth creation
that is not based upon productivity but inflationary high risk and deepening debt.
There is much more going on here than a lack of regulation that involves a
distorted value system based on wealth. And, it is destroying our economy,
undermining our democracy and hurting our great nation (Crisis in Education) .
It
is time that we reconsider the choice of Teddy Roosevelt and remember what it
took for our forefathers and ancestors to build America.
A healthy economy is not about helping the rich to get richer. It is about
helping each other in a consumer-driven economy to build prudent investments,
spend wisely on quality products and services and increase the efficiency and
performance of our businesses. We need to reconsider what it takes to build our
organizations to perform at the highest levels and not just what kind of
profits we can squeeze out of them before we put them out of business and give
the CEOs their golden parachutes. Building high performance organizations involves
creating collaborative teams of dedicated employees who put the mission of the
organization first and work to provide quality products and services that they
can be proud of.
It takes much more than an obsession
with self-interest and profits to accomplish this. And, it is a matter of
choice as Roosevelt said. We need to choose between just
accumulating wealth or dedicating ourselves to service and productivity in the
spirit of our ancestors and forefathers of democracy. There is no substitute
for the value of hard work and the reward we receive from helping others to
perform at their highest levels will last long after the money is gone. This is
the American Dream and it is a collaborative, value-driven effort that is all
about democracy, hard work and service to each other, not the quest for wealth.
Copyright
2008, Global Leadership Resources: For teaching and classroom use only.
Note:
The above article is based on the concepts and examples found in the book, The Price of Freedom: The Purpose and Power
of Free Choice by Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.
Discussion Questions
- What are the essential
differences between building productivity and creating wealth?
- What is the value of hard
work and service in building productive organizations?
- What were the choices that
Washington, Franklin and the young
doctor made and how did these choices change their lives and the lives of
others?
- Why did Teddy Roosevelt tell
the young doctor he would eventually have to make a choice between a life
of service and a life of wealth? Do you agree? Why?
- What were the important
values that helped to build America?
- Why are these values
essential to collaboration and teamwork in building our organizations and
businesses?
- How has the self-serving
obsession with wealth damaged the economy, our organizations and our
democratic society?
