Don't Let Them Guilt You Into Being Average

I’ve been talking to kids recently. Not really kids but young adults. College students and law students. Know what they say?

They are afraid. They don’t like what they hear about the economy. No jobs.

They are surrounded not only by bad news in the headlines but by “Eeyores.” Good ‘ol Eeyore. “There’s always a darker day coming.”

Most of the time this attitude comes from their friends. If they are surrounded by whiners, it’s sooooo easy to jump on board. Sometimes, though, it’s their professors and other administrators reinforcing this doom and gloom. One career-counseling official at a Virginia university was quoted as saying that her office was not very busy these days because, it seemed to her, “students had just ‘given up.’” (Wonder what’s she’s doing to try to reverse that thinking? Probably not much!)

Then there are the kids who have a legitimate worry. “What’s the point of financial success” they say, if the government is going to continue to demonize ‘the rich’ through massive confiscatory taxation and regulation?

Oh gosh, what to do?

Here’s what I tell ‘em when they ask:

First, remember that America is still the land of limitless opportunity. Inc. Magazine recently profiled 16 entrepreneurs who were (1) developing new products and services, (2) hiring people and (3) raising money. What? Thriving in a down economy? Well, guess what? They are all college students!

One University of Houston student owns (yes, I said owns) three donut and ice cream (what a combo!) stores that will gross over one million dollars this year. Another student launched a bottled-water brand. Bottled water of all things!! He figured out a different way to pitch it. Grosses over $650,000 a year from which he donates more than $50,000 back to charity.

Now, there will always be winners and losers. Plain and simple. That’s life. However, don’t let anyone tell you that winners and losers are somehow predetermined. Race, religion, disability, location, bad home life are not predictors of success or failure. You set out to win and you can win, no matter who you are. It also is not your moral or social responsibility to limit your own achievements in order to make the 80 percent feel better about the lack of their own achievements. Don’t feel guilty about the success you achieve because you work while others “twitter!”

The world always will break down into what I call 80-15-5. Eighty percent of the people will make deliberate choices to live average lives. The top twenty percent will step over and around the bottom 80 percent to excel. This is why most of the world’s wealth, by the way, is controlled by a relative few. It’s neither unjust nor unfair. It’s there for anyone to attain. It’s a matter of choice. And of that top twenty percent, a small portion will lead extraordinary lives. Again, not by luck but by deliberate choice.

Guard yourself against the world that is conspiring against you. The masses would rather you NOT succeed than focus on putting in the time/effort/work to reach success themselves. It’s easier on them. They do this by sucking you into bad habits, poor self-discipline and distracting you from your priorities.

The college students profiled in Inc. Magazine made a choice to focus on success, work their butts off and ignore those professors and administrators who teach about the inherent “unfairness” of the accumulation of wealth by the few. These kids hang out with winners. As I said before, it’s not race, religion or upbringing which predicts success. The #1 predictor? Who are you hanging out with now???

By the way, it was the March 2009 issue of Inc. that profiled these winners. You can make a choice to go to the library (you know, that big building, unlimited supply of free education) and read that issue to see what these kids are doing. Or you can make a choice to HOPE that BIG GOVERNMENT comes and bails out your butt one day.