Ask Not What Anyone Can Do For You…

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address


What the hell has happened? When did we become a culture of spiritual beggars pressing the fence with our hands crying for scraps from the very people who derive their power from us?

This isn’t about politics or religion. I’m talking about the dormancy of the American spirit. This complacency crosses partisan lines and the spiritual power I’m talking about is not the domain of any particular religious group.

It’s likely that in this argument I’ll be accused of a lack of compassion. So be it; but I’ll quote a far greater philosophical mind than mine. Whatever happened to the idea that giving a man a fish only feeds him for a day where teaching him to fish feeds him for a lifetime? Which is more compassionate, throwing fish to the begging masses or making sure everyone has the opportunity to learn how to fish?

I don’t want to be misunderstood. I did not say we need to make sure we teach everyone to fish; I said we need to provide the opportunity to learn how to fish. Ultimately the responsibility for learning is the student’s.

The only person responsible for your success and happiness is the same person who brushes his teeth in your bathroom mirror. It’s not the job of the government, or your company, or your neighbor to provide the essential resources you need to create your personal vision of success & happiness.

Our government is supposed to be the mechanism whereby we can cooperatively assure we each enjoy the basic security we need allowing us the freedom to pursue our dreams as individuals. More enlightened companies know that productivity and profitability of the organization increases when the organization is proactive in providing the opportunity and resources that encourages the success of each individual.

We’re much more powerful as a group when we each accept personal responsibility for becoming powerful individuals.

Times are tough and it is right and generous to help your neighbor. When you’re the recipient of generosity it’s right to respond with appreciation and gratitude. It’s counterproductive at best to respond to generosity with demands for increased charity. It’s destructive to create a system where our cooperative institutions become the primary resource for this continual stream of entitlement.

Part of our current economic state is due to conditions and circumstances well beyond the control of any, if not most of us. That’s no excuse for a lack of participation in the solution. The first part of the solution is for each of us to make ourselves more powerful and effective. Power: your ability or capacity to act or perform effectively is what makes you more valuable to yourself and those around you. Value is what drives commerce; at all levels our system is based on commerce.

Much of our current economic state is due to conditions and circumstances beyond the control of the President, Congress or the Supreme Court. A democratic system of government is by its very nature slow. It takes time to develop a consensus; a dictator can change conditions at will. Which do you prefer? We’re also the first generation to deal with an authentic global economy. Today nearly any service and many goods can be delivered across borders at the speed of an internet connection. Speculation in global markets creates conditions tomorrow that we have to deal with yesterday.

As individuals and as a community we still have to work within the scope of that which we can really do something about. Most of the conditions we face today are not the result of what’s going on today, but a product of what we’ve allowed to happen in the recent past.

The solution is clear: let’s step up and take control of our own lives. At any time you can acquire new skills, knowledge and experience that will position you to take advantage of new opportunities. You can make a direct impact on your life and the lives of others by maintaining a positive outlook; and before I’m accused of naiveté, there are no solutions in negativity. Positivity does not guarantee desired results, negativity assures undesired results.

Negativity is blinding. Positivity opens your eyes, ears, mind and heart to possibility. The more open you are to possibility, the more you increase the probability of success. Simple, not easy.

Not convinced yet? Let’s apply positivity to an immediate real world problem. Many of us have grown accustomed to the freedom of driving solo anywhere we want to go at any time. Take a look at the other cars on your next morning commute and notice how many are still driver, no passengers.

Now you could continue to complain and wait for the government to institute some policy to affect the price of gas; but bear in mind that reactive policy usually results in some deficiency somewhere else. For example, we could drop a state tax on gas; but then don’t complain as you drive through unrepaired potholes. Negative thought and action usually results in substituting one problem for another.

Or, you could car pool: positive and immediate action! Share a ride and you just cut your gas expense in half; that’s reality! If that’s too inconvenient, fine; just stop complaining! Put three people in that car and you’ve lowered gas expenses for your commute to near a dollar a gallon. Notice I said “expenses,” you still haven’t affected the price.

Get a million people to share a ride and your regional gas dealers start to pay attention. Ten million of us and suppliers may start to get nervous. Fifty-million of us sharing a ride and the speculators and the producers start to worry; we just might lower the price of fuel for the entire world. Simple, not easy. Of course, neither was going to the moon!

Times are tough; let’s get tough right back. Let’s fight negativity with the only weapon that works: positivity. Let’s stop wondering when someone is going to save us and start accepting full personal responsibility for our success and happiness. Let’s start sharing solutions instead of commiserating in misery. Let’s start where we can have the most impact; with ourselves and with those in our daily lives and local communities.

Let’s not ask what our neighbors can do for us, but rather what we can do for our neighbors. Let’s offer encouragement in place of discouragement and sweat in place of tears. That’s how we create opportunity from adversity.