The Myth of the Self-Made Man

Preface: I wrote this before SuperStorm Sandy tore the tri-state area to shreds. I hesitated to post this as it might touch some frayed nerve endings at a fragile time. Now that things are inching closer to normal, it might be a okay to think about these things?

It was painful to watch Derek Jeter go down, even as an avowed MetSox fan (I pull for the Mets and the Red Sox). Like a lot of Americans, I respect Derek Jeter. The Yankees in the ALCS without Jeter? Interesting, not the same. What is it about Jeter? First of all, he’s talented and has had decades of success at the top of his profession; he’s the shortstop, one of the toughest positions, for the NY Yankees. It’s obvious that Jeter respects the game and his opponents. Now if anyone could take credit for his own success, it’s Jeter, or any other baseball player for that matter. After all the batting practice and coaching, eventually it’s him, 60 feet six inches from Justin Verlander. It’s a results business, if you can’t hit, you won’t play and Jeter hits, has been hitting, all his life it feels. And in the field? There’s also no place to hide, especially for a shortstop. Runners on first and second, one run ball game, sharply hit ball to short, it's on you to make that play. And Jeter has made them, because of his talent, because of the work he put in. But if you ask Jeter? Jeter has much love for his parents. He credits his teammates. He talks about how lucky he is to be a part of the Yankee organization. Jeter always mentions his coaches, all the way back to his high school days in Michigan. If any man is an island, it’s a baseball player. If anyone could claim to be a self-made man, it’s a baseball player, like say, Derek Jeter. He’s the one who has fielded tens of thousands of ground balls. Derek Jeter’s the one who has taken years of batting practice to become the NY Yankees all-time hit leader. But given the chance, he defers the credit, actually credits others. And that’s a major reason why Yankee fans love him and also why the rest of us respect him.

Baseball’s an interesting sport because the tempo of the game gives us time to, ponder. The night Jeter got hurt I thought, Jeter is a great American story, how much we could all learn from him. Given the chance to toot his own horn, Jeter will not. Now America is filled with many impressive stories, from the contemporary Bill Gates all the way back to Cornelius Vanderbilt. The success of our country and the success of our businessmen are intertwined; we would not have one without the other. America would not be America without Ben Franklin, John Hancock, William Randolph Hearst or say, George Steinbrenner. I love reading about our country’s history, so many entrepreneurs and business tycoons building businesses up from an idea, and through hard work and stick-to-itiveness, creating something to be proud of.

We can all applaud the Ray Kroc’s of the world and our local mom & pop burger joints. All of these people are hard-working, smart, driven, it takes a lot to build a business and their successes have led to America’s success and vice versa. Not to take anything away from these successes but I do find it sad, disappointing even, when so many Americans are quick to tout their own success, to claim the mantle of Self-Made. It makes me cringe when I talk politics with friends and they brag about being self-made. Really?

President Obama was recently lambasted for something he said on the campaign trail about successful business owners. Part of his message was, “You didn’t build this business.” Probably not the right way to say that; however, if you continue to listen to what he said, all he was saying is that like Jeter, if you are successful, maybe you should look at, in addition to your talent, your brains and your hard work that maybe other things were also part of the recipe for your success?

Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness: Our government, and our country is designed for people to succeed in this manner. Our Founding Fathers were a lot of things but if you know the Constitution and the deliberations surrounding that document they were businessmen, or at least they had business in mind when they wrote the Constitution. These iconic men, setting up a nascent country knew that trade, mercantilism, entrepreneurship was something that was paramount for a successful America.

Over the centuries, we have all been reaping the benefits of their foresight. As we all know, America is a pretty safe place. Luckily most Americans have been safe, most of our lives. Do you think John Rockefeller could have built his oil empire in Afghanistan? If we had anarchy? Successes like his would not have happened. If you were able to start a bakery or begin a personal computing empire in your garage, it certainly helps that you were safe. It wasn’t luck that there were no Mexican drug cartels wreaking havoc in Texas as Michael Dell began his American success story. No, Mr. Dell has his local police and the FBI to thank. If he’s smart, and I know that he is, he should also thank the US: Army, Navy, Air Force & Marines. The climate for business success is there in part because we are safe.

Our Founding Fathers put into place the power to coin money, the power to regulate commerce between and among the newly united, states. Over the past 225 years the governmental system has enabled trade on a consistent basis. There were a few blips here and there but Americans have been trading with money, coined by our federal government, for over 200 years. And for that we should all tip our caps. We could all look in our history books for many countries, actually look at some of today’s European Union countries, to see a place where it would be tough to start a business. What do you think the markets look like right now in Egypt? Syria? Uganda? How easy would it be to start up a computer company in your garage right now in Libya?

The president mentioned we all need roads. (As I mentioned, I wrote this piece before the storm but Sandy’s damage has really put our infrastructure front-and-center in our conversations) To point out the obvious, if you have built a successful company roads have probably played an integral part as they: help employees get to your factory or office, enable you to receive the materials necessary for the manufacturing process and help you get the office supplies to run your business. Finally, it’s our roads you use to ship your goods to markets. President Obama should have added that while you and your employees are at work you have running water, sewage and electricity, all part of our infrastructure that enables success. This infrastructure, very costly infrastructure, where does it come from? It’s provided directly and sometimes indirectly by your tax dollars and your government. (Right now it’s being repaired by your tax dollars, and your government) So think twice
Mr. Calandro when you say that you didn’t get anything from your government, the government has put into place the infrastructure to enable success.

Some things we don’t even think of as infrastructure like the airport system. There’s not an airline in the world that could recoup the money they would have to spend to create a system of airports around the country to move passengers and material around. No, the government builds airports, and finances the building of airports and then companies like Continental, United and the other airline companies as well as you and I benefit from that construction. How many of our self-made business people rely on air travel? Our government and business also worked together to create our nation’s railroad system, Cornelius Vanderbilt had a little government help along the way because it was beneficial to, a lot of parties, to get the railroads built. So many stakeholders benefited from this business/government relationship.

I know that a lot of this infrastructure has been around for a while but I would think the president would have mentioned the internet, our 21st century infrastructure. How many self-made business people have benefited from the internet? Think of all of the people, very imaginative, hard working people, who earn their living via the internet. And of course, we have the government to thank for the internet.

Our Constitution gives congress the power to establish patents and to protect those patents for a period of seven years. It’s that kind of foresight by our Founding Fathers that helped our entrepreneurs build their businesses and build our country. I know that we Americans are an inventive, inspired, hard-working people and luckily we have the right government in place. It’s just more endearing when we are patriotic about our successes instead of hurting our arms patting ourselves on the back.

Back to America’s game. If you asked Jeter about his success, he would not hesitate to mention Joe Girardi, Joe Torre all the way back to his high school coaches for helping him become the ball player he is today. He gives credit for his success to his coaches, his parents, his teammates... If you are good at math, writing or computers, if you can play the guitar, or you went to a tech school and became an electrician and started your own business, I would hope that you realize you got to where you are because of talent, hard work, and the skills you learned along the way. Over the decades people have been free to become John Steinbeck, John Mellencamp or John Rockefeller because they had the right teacher, because their parents were supportive, because their school was safe and the bus came every morning. And luckily for most American students, when they got to school they had desks, text books and an environment where they could learn. When they graduated from high school, an affordable state college was available because of our government’s foresight.

Hasn’t Sandy reminded us all of how fragile life can be, and how we take for granted things like subways and tunnels, roads and bridges, running water and electricity? I know Jeter would be smart enough and respectful enough to realize all of the things that led to his success and to be thankful for all of the things America has given him. Maybe we could all learn a lesson from The Captain?