I talked to some friends this past week, and the topic turned to younger people and how to instill the importance of excellence and effort in them. Most under thirty have grown up in an era of big government, bailouts, handouts, low interest rates, and easy credit. Many have little concept of hard work and dedication, and the false narrative of instant gratification seduces them. For sure, this is not true of all, but it is true of many.
First Things First
Admiral William H. McRaven, in a now-famous commencement speech at the University of Texas in Austin, explains the importance of making your bed each morning.
This sounds a bit simplistic, but it is not. Admiral McRaven’s point is that starting each day with a small, accomplishable task sets you on a path to success, one day at a time, one accomplishment at a time. The advisability of this small task can be seen with any endeavor where attaining a significant goal requires the completion of many smaller tasks. How this tiny success carries over into other daily tasks is the key.
Lessons from the “Nowhere Man”
In the series by Gregg Hurwitz titled “The Nowhere Man,” his lead character, Evan Smoke, often finds himself in harrowing situations where he could cut corners and take the easy way out. But every time he is confronted with that dilemma, he falls back on his training and conjures up the reminder:
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
This simple reminder from the fictional life of the “Nowhere Man” is a bit more accurate and insightful than we might want to admit, and we see it everywhere.
If we develop unhealthy habits, they stick with us. Once established, they become engrained in our lives, whether eating, saving, investing, or any personal habits. I can only hope our grandchildren will read this and think about it one day! “How you do anything is how you do everything” is not just the maxim of a fictional hero; it is how life works.
Being Thankful for What We Have
I sit with a friend, and occasionally, we discuss how blessed we are to live in America. Some people struggle with daily life, some due to circumstances and some because of bad choices. However, relative to the rest of the world, Americans are blessed.
Unlike many in history, our children and grandchildren have never experienced the harsh reality of going to bed hungry or without a roof over their heads. They are equipped with all the modern gadgets they desire, and their parents are driven to pave their path to success. However, they must understand the rarity of their historical and global circumstances.
Eighty-four percent of the world’s population lives on less than $30 daily. Western democracies have the greatest concentration of wealth, not because of anything other than capitalism, democratic freedoms, and a willingness to work. Among world powers, the greatest concentration of poverty is in communist and socialist countries.
In China, ninety-four percent of the population survives on less than $30 a day. In Russia, this is a little better, with eighty-six percent of the population living in poverty compared to Western democracies. The United States is the best place to live on earth, with only 14.7% of the population living on less than $30 daily. A few Scandinavian countries have lower rates, but their populations are minuscule compared to the United States.
Our prosperity is not accidental but a byproduct of our Constitution, freedoms, and economic system. Our Congress and politicians are financially ignorant, and many either do not understand our greatness or actively work to undermine it.
A Financially Bifurcated Society
Then we have our society’s bifurcated nature, where many younger people have mysteriously just given up before they start. Some were born into poverty, some are COVID dropouts looking for handouts, and some do not want to work. Unfortunately, this group is setting themselves up for a lifetime of misery and condemning others within society to a lifetime of support. For sure, our worldwide adversaries love the shift in work sentiment and push us ever closer to socialism through our schools, social media, and illegal migration.
If you do not believe this, look at the mounting credit card and other forms of consumer debt. When you get to “Buy now – Pay later” loans, you are at the end of the borrowing line. Your credit cards are maxed out, your checking account is dry, and you are so addicted to spending that you cannot stop. Consumer debt is at an all-time high, and without a recession and a healthy dose of bankruptcies, it will not stop.
Committing to excellence in your spending habits is a personal choice and a societal responsibility. Like many other things today, we have the “I cannot stop spending” and the “I will not spend” groups. Neither operates in a sphere that leads to a healthy life, economy, or world. Being financially responsible contributes to a healthier economy and a better world.
This is more obvious in the United States than any era in recent memory. It is also more easily fixed in America because of our freedoms and history of capitalism, where hard work can result in financial success. But bad financial habits are challenging to correct, and high levels of consumer debt only serve to illustrate Nowhere Man’s caution.
Changing Everything
Fortunately, we can change everything here in America by committing ourselves to excellence rather than mediocracy. Usually, this starts with simple things being done correctly. Having your standards and ignoring the noise from the crowd helps. Looking around for confirmation and messaging from many who have been there saves time, gives us insight, and inspires us.
In our articles on what it takes to live a good and prosperous life in America, we noted that everyone can attain at least a middle-class lifestyle in America by doing just five things. Nothing is complicated about the Brookings Institute findings, but you must be in the game to play. You must “Make Your Bed” every day to change your habits.
An excellent place to start is with government programs. Politicians need to learn that giving us less, not more, is the path to individual and national success. We cannot build resiliency with continued handouts and bailouts.
Find A Mentor, Be A Mentor
Another error made by many today comes from our electronic culture and the isolation brought on by Covid. We all need a support network to survive in life. Few, if any, can go it alone and expect to overcome life’s challenges. Genuine relationships, not electronic relationships, are essential because body language, eye contact, voice inflection, group interaction, and other face-to-face clues are a part of building relationships.
Genuine relationships come with opportunities to mentor or be mentored by others. One way of saying this is, “Pull is better than push.” In other words, it is easier to be lifted to success by those above you than to try to lift yourself.
Another often missed opportunity is the chance to mentor others. You do not need to be formally trained to mentor others; you only need to want to help others and take a genuine interest in their success, not yours. Being a mentor lifts your spirits and contributes to society by replicating and multiplying success.
Success in America comes from the collective effort of our citizenry, not from government decree or intervention. Government decrees and interventions have become impediments to our historical success. When the government injects itself into normal economic processes to garner votes, it interrupts the necessary cycles to keep our economy and citizens on track.
Nowhere is this more evident than in student loans and Wall Street bailouts. Students who do not feel the weight of poor education decisions make poorer decisions. They have lost the cause-and-effect connection and become dependent on government interventions when they get off track.
Tuning Out the Noise
To continue our national and individual success, we must tune out our media and vote for politicians who understand our greatness. With inflation, it is becoming easier to attain millionaire status. However, we must understand that government spending slowly erodes the dollar’s spending power. It may take a net worth of $2 million or $3 million to have the same wealth as just a decade ago.
A recent study by Fidelity Investments found that 88% of all millionaires made their wealth on their own, not through inheritance. Their analysis shows that there are still multiple paths to financial success in America. Our country is filled with stories of success, often by people with few resources, just good financial habits and determination.
No matter how much noise we hear from Washington and college campuses, our society is neither unfair nor repressive. Our Presidential election will be over soon, and we must hope that no matter the outcome, we continue to preserve the freedoms that lead to our resiliency and success.
Resources
Extreme poverty: How far have we come, and how far do we still have to go?, By Max Roser, Our World Data, ourworlddatd.org, August 27, 2023.
How Most Millionaires Got Rich: Millionaires aren’t usually born wealthy. These self-made millionaires earned their fortune the old-fashioned way: hard work and ingenuity, By Stella Morrison, Business News Daily, businessnewsdaily.com, January 9, 2024.
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World, By Admiral William H. McRaven, amazon.com, Grand Central Publishing, April 4, 2017.
The Bifurcation of America: The Forced Class Separation into Alphas and Betas, Unsupervised Learning, danielmiessler.com, March 11, 2017.
The Nowhere Man: An Orphan X Novel, By Greg Hurowitz, Minotaur Books, amazon.com, 2017.
Today’s Millionaires Are Young and Self-Made, By Suzanne Blake, Newsweek Business, newsweek.com, October 30, 2023.
Two-thirds of American millionaires don’t consider themselves wealthy, survey says, By Megan Cerullo, CBS News, cbsnews.com, September 10, 2024.
Who is considered poor in rich countries? Poverty lines and other relevant benchmarks, By Max Roser, Our World Data, ourworlddatd.org, March 5, 2021.
