I think something that is very important to a huge number of real people, yet is rarely covered is the subject of opportunity. How can people young and old find, develop, and exploit opportunities to succeed, grow, and build things outside of the standard and over-used one of go to school, go to more school, succeed at school, and then when you are already grown up, go figure out how to make a living by talking someone into hiring you to do what THEY want you to do.Thanks Bags. This post also gave me the opportunity to plum the tags bar. (mix metaphors, too late)
It's not a plan for happiness or self-fulfillment for many people. It's a path based on maintaining the security of doing what you are supposed to for as long as you can pull it off. It's avoiding risk, avoiding challenge, and missing your calling as an individual. It delays for as long as possible your contributing to the people around you, which is how you become self-sufficient - by people needing your work.
The only place I see this stuff addressed is in the work of Mike Rowe. We need more discussion about how people can become valuable assets to their community through self-development that starts out very quickly paying off, and keeps building that throughout a life.
Our education system is a shambles of narrow political experimentation and pet projects of a few philosophies which are antagonistic toward diversity and unconcerned with results. They are experiments insistent on proving their hypothesis with no interest in real results for individuals. Failure is ignored and success is manufactured, and failure is what a great many are getting.
We need more discussion, exploration and experimentation with teaching trades, commerce, business building, how to work in a way where you parlay your minor successes into big ones over a lifetime.
Many immigrants are learning these things, and leaving natives behind in the area of personal development and growth because they arrive without the standard plan as an option, blocking their view of their real opportunities. The reason that immigrants take so many jobs is that they take the damned job. Then, they run with it, advance, start businesses. They don't see their parents' couch as the only alternative to college or a cushy job.
Many millionaires and highly successful, self-actualized individuals and families living great lives owe little or nothing to the standard plan.
I'm not against education - I still work on it every day for myself - but the way it is being done and sold is mostly a scam - a high end version of the stuff sold on late night TV as get-rich-quick lies. They take your money, waste you valuable time, and in the end, leave you to your own devices anyway, but wounded and broke.
That's a lot of rant against what isn't working, but I see the successful people all around me, including myself, and many found a different ways, which people don't really see anymore. They are there. They should be better known.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Guest Posts Welcome
Yesterday. in my "I like This Idea for a Post This Morning" (still going strong today) I asked yous guys (a little Trooper lingo there) to suggest topics, that may have gone "neglected", for us to post, discuss, chew over, kick around etc... And, the never disappointing, always obliging, Bagoh20, (Bags, as I call him) shared something I thought I make into a "guest post".
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89 comments:
It's avoiding risk, avoiding challenge, and missing your calling as an individual.
Most people don't have the call to be an individual in a professional sense. Most people don't have the call to be an individual in most senses, which is why we have mass marketing, mass entertainment, big time sports, etc.
And that's just as well. Half the population has an IQ at or below 100. Really think a guy with an IQ of 85 is going to make much of a go as a businessman? Even discounting for all the rocks and shoals (regulations and tax codes) that he would have to navigate through?
It was one thing when that guy could move to some mostly uninhabited place and start a farm for a hardscrabble existence. Those days are gone, but those people are still around.
Wow!! Sign that boy to a contract. Not only said superbly, but having been a teacher[high school history] I agree totally w/ his assessment of education.
We need more discussion about how people can become valuable assets to their community through self-development that starts out very quickly paying off, and keeps building that throughout a life. [emphasis added]
-and-
We need more discussion, exploration and experimentation with teaching trades, commerce, business building, how to work in a way where you parlay your minor successes into big ones over a lifetime. [emphasis added]
So is this about long-term development or quick fixes?
The reason that immigrants take so many jobs is that they work below minimum wage and without any legal protection.
FIFY
@Lem: You should give this one a "Mike Rowe" tag and check out the other(s).
It's great that the illegal Mexicans take the jobs that Americans just can't get, to quote Steve Sailer. It's also great that they've crushed the wages in the construction trades, too, to cite one example.
That is exactly right Icepick. All of the little jobs that kids would get after school or in the summer have been taken over by illegal immigrants. Delivery boy. Stock boy. Cashier in a supermarket. Even shoveling snow.
It stopped the process where kids learned how to go to a job and work instead getting an allowance and playing video games all summer long.
Say you want to start a lawn mowing business.
First, get a lawn mower. Second, get an edger. Third, get something for cleaning up the place afterwards (broom, leaf blower, etc.) Make certain you have all the necessary accessories.
Now go out and look for a lawn to mow in return for remuneration. Okay, so you got your gas push mower, your old fashioned edger and a broom. Okay, now go get some business!
The business you can get varies greatly by neighborhood. But what you will ultimately find is that people either can't afford your services, or they can afford to pay a little more and hire the big outfit that drives up with a two-man crew, a nice riding mower, a guy with a gas powered weed whacker and a gas powered leaf blower. They will be done in under fifteen minutes, and a good part of that time will be spent just getting the mower out of and then back into the trailer. (Putting out the orange safety cones doesn't take long, but it also isn't something that can be sped up, much less unlatching the ramp, making certain it is securely placed on the ground, etc.)
Meanwhile, the guy with his set-up might take an hour doing the lawn if he knows what he's doing. It's an easy call who to hire if you can afford the service to begin with.
And the big outfit is probably financed by some lawyer or doctor, who provided the capital, run by some guy that knows Spanish, and all the laborers are Mexican or Guatemalan. The guy with the gas powered push mower doesn't have a prayer in hell of succeeding in that environment. That market is saturated with $3.00/hr labor and a lot of capital.
The thing stopping American kids from getting jobs is that they think it's below them. Most people would love to have a gardener that speaks English. Those kids don't want to work that hard. My gardener is a natural born citizen, and he brings his son to work with him. They work hard, and get it done fast. If I had to say why they do that, it would be that they are also hispanic, and they just have a different work ethic now days than our kids do.
If immigrants had the same work ethic as a lot of Americans, they wouldn't be getting the jobs either.
The minimum pay is mandated by law, and except for a few risk takers everyone pays the legal pay and benefits, because there are a whole bunch of lawyers just hunting for those who don't, and paying people nice sums to turn them in.
If you have a job you want done, are you telling me you don't give it to the guy who works harder for less and delivers a better result?
Spare me.
In my neighborhood it's about 60 bucks to have your lawn done twice per month. That's 30 bucks a visit. The guys who do this and make a decent living will get that done in about 10 minutes flying around like humming birds. They will jump in the truck and get the next lawn, and the next, and be done for the day before lunch. I watch these crews do this all the time. I never see American kids work like that, and many of these are adult men. It's not that the money isn't there. It's that you have to go get it with some gusto. Our whole country has lost it's drive.
Yep, it's due to the lack of a work ethic. And also because of affluence. Kids raised in a family with more than enough, and with parents who don't push them to, just don't go out looking for work.
When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to get my first job so I could earn a little spending money. My first paying job at 12 was mopping the floor for a cranky old neighbor. Then later I graduated to babysitting for other neighbors.
My brothers did stuff like watering the lawn and garden for folks on vacation. A rather big job in those days in California's hot Central Valley summers before automatic, timed sprinkler systems.
I never see American kids work like that, and many of these are adult men. It's not that the money isn't there. It's that you have to go get it with some gusto. Our whole country has lost it's drive.
How are they going to get the equipment to work like that? And why are you so certain the guys driving around in the truck own the business? Perhaps LA is different, but that just wouldn't be the case in Orlando. The Mexicans do the work, someone else gets the big cash rewards.
I used to know someone that made himself a millionaire after starting out mowing lawns as a kid. He turned the business into a successful landscaping business before branching out into (what else? this is Florida) development. The kids trying to start their businesses in the exact same neighborhood today (the man mentioned above started out three houses down and across the street, about a 90 second LEISURELY walk from my front door) have no chance in hell at succeeding in the same way. The big outfits with the illegal work crews CRUSH them for what business is available.* It isn't a matter of how hard they might work, it's that they can't compete with tens of thousands of dollars in capital investment with their dad's old gas powered push mower.
* There is a variant on this. There is a Haitian outfit that does alright working JUST on the lawns for the houses owned/rented by Haitians. But even that outfit comes with the pick-up and the trailer and large riding mower/tractor and the gas powered everything else. The kids that want to mow my lawn haven't got a chance against those outfits. (I use neither service as I haven't the money to spare, and have an old mower that still works.)
"So is this about long-term development or quick fixes?"
I think that's what people have lost sight of. You can be productive, and valuable and also be developing your skills and knowledge. That's the way it used to be. You learned on the job doing right beside the guy who had the job you wanted.
Just one example: We employ lots of welders. Every one was trained from scratch in-house without ever seeing a welding machine before. We have tried many times to hire trained welders. They have their certificates from welding school. Some were ex-cons training in prison. (We try to help with that). None of them ever worked out. They can't weld, they don't want to work production and meet performance goals, and they think they will make the kind of money that a guy welding a space shuttle does. They have no realistic frame of reference for how the work is done or what is needed to be valuable to others. You learn that on the job, and some people get ruined before we get them.
95% of the people we have trained here to weld have gone on to better paying jobs, and some have started their own businesses. They learned how to be valuable. Sometimes they come back, because we always have work, and we have no problem with people leaving for better things. That's the whole point.
Sure, Meade, the demographics of the country, not to mention the regulatory adn business environments, are exactly the same as they were when you started out 35 or so years ago.
God, I hate dealing with innumerate idiot old fucks who think the world hasn't changed since when they were pimply-faced little twerps with smooth skin.
I still have smooth skin, because my boss always told me "it puts the lotion on it's skin, or it gets the hose again."
Acorns. Don't forget acorns.
Parents are part of the problem with kids getting jobs. You can make decent bucks shoveling walks and driveways--so why aren't more kids out there doing it (even the Mexicans can't get immediately to your neighbor's house). Why aren't more parents encouraging their kids to go get work.
And illegals do not work for free. They do not do jobs for $1.50 an hour. They want a decent amount for what they do too. Nothing is stopping local kids from trying to get jobs such as leave raking, mowing, shoveling, etc.
Even this Mexican can't be every place at once!
Where I live all of the lawn service people are white men with a few white women working with them. At the convenience store with the large lawn, it's an elderly white man and his white wife.
On the way to New Richmond, a new steel roof went up on a barn. Amish men did that job.
Are we allowed to bash Meade in this thread after his actions in that other one? I assumed that this lawncare related thread was meant for that.
He has been having fun deleting comments related to his wife's latest hissy fit and claims of being silenced over at TOP, but I will respect the wishes of the original poster.
There are way too many helicopter parents who do not realize that their kids making a few bucks doing physical work does more than earn a few bucks--it makes their kids better people.
Half the population has an IQ at or below 100. Really think a guy with an IQ of 85 is going to make much of a go as a businessman?
Two Words: Forrest Gump
AllenS, I saw on the CBS News Owen, Wi. was -26. I'm heading south and pursuing my freedom by travel. Leaving earlier than planned. Might spend some time in the Tucson area prior to San Diego.
You don't need any equipment to a check out girl at the market. But instead of high school kids they have illegal immigrants. There are kids who want to work and can't get a job because illegals will work off the books for less then the minimum wage.
"He has been having fun deleting comments related to his wife's latest hissy fit and claims of being silenced over at TOP, but I will respect the wishes of the original poster."
I haven't been over there...what's she hissying about? (I was OP of the other thread, not this one.)
But thanks for the considerate respect :)
She has a post about the stay of Gay Marriage by the Supreme Court until the 10th circuit hears the appeal.
Early in the thread Fen said that he was sick of the topic, and she went nuts saying that she was being "silenced."
Hilarity then ensued.
Thanks, PMJ.
I need a guest post about a strange warren and a lady who thought the gay question was settled law.
Within two minutes; good job, quick-draw.
Acorns. Plant some acorns.
Are you even 60 years old, Meade? I doubt it. Free lunch? Have you ever tried to eat an acorn?
29 Mar 1954. Not quite.
In your steps to being successful, you left out the part where you find a much more educated sugar mama to support you with her taxpayer funded salary and pension.
I'm guessing that's a more lucrative return than acorns.
Along comes a man who doesn't own a house, doesn't own a car, doesn't have a job, telling everyone how to get rich.
Priceless.
Plant an acorn, and suddenly there are squirrels to eat the next day.
Hey Lem how about a post about the Hall of Fame ballot and who you would vote for in 2014.
Looks like somebody is getting a little stir crazy being cooped up with his meal ticket.
What's the matter, not enjoying the censored conversations on your own (and by your own, I mean your keeper's) blog?
I have 10 acres of trees. A lot of them are oaks. I've taught more kids to hunt than you have.
My family never had a farm. I do. I bought it on my own.
I planted all of my fence lines with red cedar trees for windbreaks.
Plant an acorn and tomorrow you can make hardwood floors!
One time a man and his son came to the door and asked if they could have all the acorns in our front yard for their tree farm. "Sure!" That was a lot of acorns. The family tree of our trees must be huge.
There are all kinds of people with landscaping businesses here, and we're in a highly competitive market. A friend of mine even did that for a summer or two several years ago. She went to Walmart, bought a mower, and found some people who'd pay her to mow. No problem.
I've lived out here since 1973. I've watched one farm after another sold off once the kids have taken over. You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Very few people want to farm. Every year there are less and less farmers.
I guess that they're like you. They want to run to the big city and live in someone's else's house. Drive someone else's car.
I have three apple trees. They are not afraid of the Junipers.
It must really bother you that you can't delete my comments here.
I make the decisions out at my place. Have been for a long time. I was 34 years old when I paid off my mortgage. I really don't need to hear what you think I should be doing out here. I've forgotten more than you'll ever know.
Good morning.
Can we just ignore Meade (sorry dude) in this thread? And PMJ -- just take a deep breath and skip down over certain commenters.
Follow the thread.
Plant some acorns. Later. When it gets a little warmer.
I'll wager farming's a bit different than running a landscaping business.
About the corn-burning stove, Allen. Does it use entire ears of dried corn?
@ Bago -- If I had to say why they do that, it would be that they are also hispanic, and they just have a different work ethic now days than our kids do.
You, my friend, are about to enter internet hell with that comment.
Have you seen or heard of the twitterclysm going on over Amy Chua (Tiger Mom) and her hubby's new book?
Apparently she asserts that certain ethnic / cultural groups of people are high achievers for certain reasons (a trifecta of reasons) that lets them nose over the finish line -- or blow the competition away a la Secretariat -- with great frequency.
People who haven't even read the book are wetting their pants waiting in the loooong line to accuse the authors of racism and worse.
Instead of asking the question about *why* are some groups better at -- say --- whatever.
Haven't read the book, and definitely did not care for her Tiger Mom approach to her girls (yowser!) but think it interesting that she looked at the landscape and spotted some anomalies. "Some of these people are not like the others" and asked the question "Why?"
People do not like her answers, but because they haven't read the book (it isn't out yet and in at least one published comment, have NO INTENTION to [(how's that for leftie open mindedness!!??]) it is hard to take the howling seriously.
And if they *look* at what her trifecta is ... well it isn't too self aggrandizing, to tell the truth.
What motivates these over achievers according to Chua and Rubenfeld is ... a sense of superiority (Bad!! Everyone is equally superior! They have trophies to prove it), impulse control (! -- I think that also translates as delayed gratification) and ... ta da ... insecurity.
From her book page: A superiority complex, insecurity, impulse control: these are the elements of the Triple Package, the rare and potent cultural constellation that drives disproportionate group success.
http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Package-Unlikely-Explain-Cultural/dp/1594205469/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389109570&sr=1-1&keywords=the+triple+package"> The Triple Package
{Buy through Lem's link if you go that route!}
So be careful if you identify any *group* of people as having something different than others. Racist.
I mean -- We All Know white men can't jump... but other than that ... everything's equal, right?
Funny you should ask, deborah. Yesterday evening I had to shut it off because the clinker would form in about 4 hours instead of every other day. Today, I removed the burner box, got the wood burner going in the shop and when it warmed up out there then sandblasted it. I use wood pellets to get a fire going. When starting it up (blower comes on) they would hardly burn. Didn't seem like any air was blowing on the burner box. Corn can't burn on it's own, it has to have air blasted at it. So, I went outside and the intake pipe up at the top where it curves back down was full of slushy wet snow. Probably from the exhaust vent. I blame the extreme cold for this. After almost 10 years this is the first time it has happened. Cleaned that out, and we're good to go.
You have to use just corn kernals. There is a small auger that feeds the corn to the burner box.
Acorns! Don't forget the acorns!
Neat, Allen. I think you said once you grow your own corn? Now, since acorns are so fascinating these days, if someone gathered enough of them, and dried them, would they have a better burn value than corn?
Ah, now Meade is pulling the Inga stunt of paranoid sockpuppetry allegations.
Your little echo chamber over there is not good for you Meade, but I guess the price you pay to be the house pet of the nutty professor.
Do you have a food bowl with your name on it?
So, I went outside and the intake pipe up at the top where it curves back down was full of slushy wet snow. Probably from the exhaust vent. I blame the extreme cold for this. After almost 10 years this is the first time it has happened. Cleaned that out, and we're good to go.
Combustion of anything organic produces CO2 and water vapor. When the outside temperature surrounding the exhaust is so extremely low, the moisture produced starts to condense inside the pipe, especially further out. Can you insulate that part of the pipe with anything heat resistant?
Hey Lem how about a post about the Hall of Fame ballot and who you would vote for in 2014.
Missed this comment last night. I did see however that you have a Hall of Fame ballot post. I commented there.
thanks for the suggestion btw.
A lot of Red Sox guys are up this year. I thought some hot stove league stuff would be better for a cold winters day. Just sayn'
Psst. Suggestion for PMJ ... knock off the comments on M&A's marriage. None of our un-informed business.
Waste of type fonts.
Besides. Wrong blog.
deb & Allen --
My guess is there aren't enough acorns to be gathered that could feed a stove for any length of time. Besides... then the bear and other critters would be hungry.
What happens when you lose power Allen? How does the augur work then. You got trained squirrels?
Nice going AllenS!! Kids are starving around the world and we here in the US use corn in our gas tanks and now burn it. You heartless, bad man!!
A friend of mine has a farm in Fort Atkinson. He got a corn burner several years back and loves it.
Here's my problem w/ wood burners. THE HOUSE IS TOO FUCKING HOT! It feels like ghetto and white trash houses I used to have to go into to interview witnesses. The TV is blaring and it's 92 degrees.
Excellent point about the critters...and amount that could be actually gathered. But mine was a question of scientific inquiry :)
Guest Posts are welcome but Pest Ghosts are not.
If there's no power then the corn burning stove and my Bryant energy efficient furnace won't work. I do have a small kerosene stove that I could use to just keep the pipes from freezing.
The only time the power seems to go off around here is in the summer.
Srsly, Allen, so you grow the corn, and if so, how many acres does it take to get you through the winter?
I don't grow corn any more. I used to but then gasoline doubled in price and the price of the seed corn and fertilizer more than doubled. Round-Up went up some but didn't double. Now I buy corn only for these days when it's really cold.
Economically, when I bought the corn burning stove, it made sense. Now, it's actually cheaper to lock in on a price for propane and let the energy efficient furnace heat the house.
Also, I like to keep some on hand in case the propane furnace should go out like it did about 6 years ago. On one of the coldest days of the year, naturally.
Burning corn has a sweet smell to it. I like that.
Thanks. I was wondering if it smelled like popcorn.
There's a spectre haunting.
deborah said...
There's a spectre haunting.
Poultrygeist?
I just relistened to this old chestnut which I made for Sixty Grit and Trooper York a while ago.
Poultrygeist...lolol
Man, that's a good Jimmy Stewart.
Popcorn, funny. The last time that I used corn that I grew, I started noticing small popcorns in the burning box compartment when I cleaned the area. Why? I have no idea. Not a lot, but some, which prompted me to eat them. However, because of the soot factor they weren't very good.
Maybe I should have used some salt and butter.
@AllenS - It's time to 'fess up. You're actually making corn liquor, aren't you? Don't fool us with the "smells sweet like burning corn" routine.
Put me down for a quart jar.
My popcorn recipe:
Pop popcorn in canola oil and powdered cayenne pepper. When done, sprinkle with some sugar and a little salt. Shake to mix.
Make sure to put the sugar in first, so the salt doesn't stick to the popcorn, and then not mix in well.
Michael, before I bought this place, I lived out in the country between (at the time), the Pine Bend Oil Refinery, which is now the Koch Oil Refinery. South of the Twin Cities, and just off of the road to Hastings, MN. Had a neighbor who was WWII vintage. One day we were down the hill from where we lived at the long garage he was renting for a workshop, and we started drinking some beer, then he said: "want to try some of the local shine?" So, he brought out a bottle of liquor that (long time ago) either him or his dad made. Not only that, but after he got shit-faced, he pulled down some canvas tarps, and there it was, a fucking still!
We kept in touch for a couple of years after I moved up here, but I have no idea what ever happened to the still.
He gave me my first John Deere 2 bottom plow. One of the best neighbors that I ever had.
Meade either got more drunk or sobered up.
As for acorns being food, read the book Oak: The Frame of Civilization by William Bryant Logan.
In it the author describes the various cultures around the world that subsisted on acorns. It is fascinating.
Noted, Sixty, thanks.
You are welcome - I had always liked oak trees and oak wood and that book only increased my appreciation for how wonderful oaks are.
On Stanford campus you can see where the native boulders were ground out so they could be used as a mortar by the local indian tribes to grind acorns, which were plentiful enough to feed a group of people for months with much less effort than hunting would have required.
Good to see those things are still around.
ndspinelli said...
Here's my problem w/ wood burners. THE HOUSE IS TOO FUCKING HOT! ... The TV is blaring and it's 92 degrees.
Ah..you've been at my ex-wife's, the queen of wood stoves, place then? She has a lovely house, on a nice trout-stream river up north, with regular furnace heat and A/C...but the the fookin' wood-stove is what she runs flat out hot all winter. She calls it "toasty" even though it is so damn hot you can work up a sweat standing still.
Wow.
It looks like somebody did some weed whacking in this thread.
Cool.
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