If you're successful...you didn't do it on your own...!!

[ChadTower]

Originally Posted by ppine

Be careful who you listen to. Giving credit to others is what confident, humble, successful people do.

Taking it away from others, particularly people you don't even know, is what insecure, arrogant, coddled people do.

A humble man will say such things about himself but would never say that about other people.

[bsmit212]

I agree that nobody makes it just by themselves. However what I don't like is him saying that people at the top did not get there because they worked harder than others. That is total BS. Speaking from a personal experience I have seen how people who work harder get ahead faster than others. In my current job, I started out in a training program with about 20 other people. We all had similar levels of collage education and qualifications going into the training program. Since then some of us have move up faster than others. The ones that I see moveing up faster are there working through lunch, putting in extra hours, raising their hands when they need extra people to get something done and so on. The people who are not advancing as fast are going out for sometime a 1 ½ hour lunch, leaving right on time every day, never raise their hands for special projects and so forth. And some have been let go due to lack of performance. People at the top got there, yes by the help of others, but also because they worked harder than others in the company to prove themselves and make themselves known.

The other big part of this speech that really bugs me is his statement that "if you own a business you didn't build that yourself." If you own your own business, yes you might not have built the infrastructure with your own hands, but it was your idea to start it, your money to get the building built or to purchase an existing one, and it is your hard work that will make it succeed or fail. It just totally diminishes the risk and hard work that small business owners put into their ideas.

[dinosaur]

I read it. Seems innocuous. Seems like drivel. Not even slightly interesting. There was one thing I didn't like; the notion of "giving back". I've never liked that phrase because it indicates that something was taken and not earned. There's nothing wrong with "giving" but "giving back" is like an admission of theft.

It's not Obama's fault. He, like so many others in our society has the same tendency to parrot what others say without thinking about conveyance of true meaning. Then again, it could be a Freudian slip.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


I'll concede that I didn't build the roads, etc. BUT MY PARENTS DID, AND THEIR PARENTS DID, If not personally, with their taxes, as I do presently with MY taxes.

So, yes, it is through my own endeavors that I have have been successful in business and professionally.

And, yes, my employees did help out, a lot...but I screened them and hired them (mostly through the VA), and paid them myself. In fact, the VA in my State of residence nominated me for small businessman of the year...!!

I also have only myself to blame for any failures...the gov't didn't do that either...!!

[ChadTower]

I deserve no credit for this post. I did not invent the alphabet, the English language, the QWERTY keyboard, Windows XP, the laptop computer, the internet, the web forum, or the bandaids on my left thumb.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


I guess then...by Obama's standards...that he didn't "win" the Nobel Prize, but it was gained by the hard work of others...!!

[ppine]

bsmit,
At first I couldn't spel collage graduat, but now I are one.

[dinosaur]

Originally Posted by ppine

bsmit,
At first I couldn't spel collage graduat, but now I are one.

Excellent example of what an old professor of mine called a truism. I have a degree also but that doesn't make me a genius or capable of solving the world's ills. This is something people should realize about politicians. No matter how well educated they are, it's not going to make them any good at the job.

[Grandpa]

First and foremost, a leader does not need to know all the nuts and bolts of his realm. He chooses advisors for that, people he can trust to give him reliable data pertaining to that problem. His primary job is to gather that data and make intelligent decisions as to the use of it. These decisions determine the direction his realm of supervision is going to go. The more knowledge or experience a person has regarding various nuts and bolts issues, the better he will be at "selling" his chosen direction using his charisma and communication skills.

[bsmit212]

Originally Posted by dinosaur

Excellent example of what an old professor of mine called a truism. I have a degree also but that doesn't make me a genius or capable of solving the world's ills. This is something people should realize about politicians. No matter how well educated they are, it's not going to make them any good at the job.

I agree, I am no genius either, and am more than happy to admit there are alot of smarter people out there than I am. Just an example of how about 20 people with the same start in a company moveup at different rates based on how hard they work. It disproves what he is saying because we started at the same place in the company, all have the same resources avaliable to us. Yet we all are moving up in the company at different rates because of our work efforts.