We Americans pride ourselves on our self-reliance, independence, and strong sustainable work ethic. We believe that our individualistic, entrepreneurial approach to solving problems and meeting needs is what has made us such a prosperous nation. As Tom Peters, the personal branding guru suggests, we are all a bunch of Davy Crockett’s living by our wits and taking care of ourselves one autonomous nonaligned person at a time.
I would think that this Recession, which we are all experiencing collectively to a greater or lesser degree, would be a perfect time for Americans to demonstrate our self-governing nature. With high unemployment, it becomes necessary for each person to self-manage the riskier and more uncertain conditions of life. If ever there was a time to live by your wits, it is when you cannot rely on an employer to provide you with the means for a long-term comfortable, or even basic lifestyle.
And yet, a reasonable question to ask is, are we as resilient to weather a personal economic storm as we might think we are? Is the typical American worker, most of whom are influenced historically by European traditions, trending toward a practice of creating our own jobs or still relying on organizations and outside employers to be our anchors? Do we have it in our DNA to face an uncertain future truly entrepreneurial or are we just too fatalistic?
Malcolm Gladwell in his latest book Outliers extracts two historic proverbs, one Western and one Eastern, to point out that Asians may have historically developed more productive work habits and perhaps keener intelligence than have those from the West. The Western proverb (Russian in origin) translates to: “If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it.” The other (Chinese), “hard work, shrewd planning, and self-reliance or cooperation with a small group will in time bring recompense.”
Our European ancestors, who lived under a strict feudal system, may be dominating our current job search practices more so than our Asian ancestors. Our Western mindset may still be predominated by a thought pattern of yielding to higher powers for a determination of our destiny, be they divine or corporate, rather than by relying on individualistic self-sufficiency.
As we search for quality work our traditional and still generally practiced approach is to see, “who’s hiring.” We’ve developed more sophisticated and digital means of doing so, but the widely accepted premise remains that job seekers look for and strive to fill openings offered by bigger and more powerful organizations.
Not too long ago, I had a seasoned and experienced professional ask me to look at his resume and portfolio. He had been in a variety of management positions for different companies from diverse industries. He was unemployed and looking for a position to fill. His documentation was impeccable, rich, and impressive. I had no substantive suggestions to make regarding changes to his papers. However, I did challenge the nature of his approach to finding work. Given his depth of experience, I told him that he would be better off looking for problems to solve within the industries he is most familiar with, rather than limiting himself to looking for someone else’s job openings.
This concept of “grabbing the bull by the horns” by leaning into industries you know and designing solutions to common or hard to solve problems is one that I would like to develop more fully in my next blog. For now, I ask readers to think about the wisdom of creating your own entrepreneurial opportunities vs. just relying on job search techniques. These times may call for a two-tracked approach that optimizes both, not just one path.