Amongst all of the crises we have swirling around us, financial, security, national, or international, all affecting our lives very directly, a powerful trend our media is ignoring is the very acute decline in business startup rates during the past decade. This trend is a continuation of the general drift we have endured for over thirty years, as the boot of government bureaucracy has increasingly pressed down on small employers. Capable leadership, lighter taxes, and lighter fee burdens are urgently required — most of all, unfettered inspiration is an imperative.
Regardless our dreams and aspirations, we can all use positive encouragement and support — without restraints or expectations of quid pro quo. This becomes even more critical for those who dive headlong into the realm of entrepreneurial uncertainties and risks. However we consider the underlying factors influencing the negative trend on business startups, the reality is that it’s impact is palpable in every neighbourhood in America.
Through the years I advised entrepreneurs and managers to seek out individuals who could demonstrate confidence whenever they searched for employees or partners.
That counsel applies to most relationships unless they are single events, and even then, you never know if the insecurity of an individual you have struck a singular ‘deal’ with, might not come back to haunt you. The most damaging and sharpest knives which find their ways deep into our backs most often come from acquaintances we trusted – plunged in by insecure individuals we “let in” trustingly.
I define a true friend as being one who is capable of wishing others well, which means someone possessing enough security and confidence, to feel happy with someone else’s success, be it large or miniscule.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump received what is in my book the most powerful endorsement he can possibly receive from anyone. Dana White, President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), addressing the RNC crowd said that after he had signed a network deal for UFC, “There was a big write-up about it in the New York Times, Donald took that paper and wrote on the front of it, ‘Congratulations, Dana! I always knew you would do it.’ And just for the record, Donald has nothing to do with my business. His interest in me and my business is personal. You can really tell a person’s true character when they are happy for somebody else’s success.”
It would be difficult to write a more positive statement about anyone.
To all those who throw the insult, “narcissist” at Trump – a narcissist is incapable of feeling happy for somebody else’s success. We have all had too long a long look at and become familiar with what narcissism looks like. This is not it. Quite the opposite.
White squarely, emotionally and effectively designated this attribute to Trump, and this bodes well for the potential entrepreneurs out there on the verge of leaping into business independence. This bodes well for America.
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.