Work Ethic
Eating is not the purpose of life on earth, but it is vital for life on earth. You can survive for several days without eating, but it is unpleasant and not very smart. Hunger is a powerful incentive. Eat smart, every day, to stay alive and healthy.
Productivity
Being productive is a vital feature of human nature and civilization. Unproductive people are not healthy, no matter how rich or poor you are. It takes effort to transform natural resources into valuable private property. You’ve got to add value to the natural resources. We’re terraforming earth, from a wilderness into a beautiful garden and we need all-hands-on-deck.
Poor people are desperately needy. The solution to that neediness is productivity. It’s difficult. People experiencing poverty are naturally seeking help. The idea of giving may seem crazy, they think they have nothing to give, yet being productive and serving other people is exactly what poor and homeless people need to do to work their way out of poverty.
This principle is true for all human beings. Rich people seeking to increase your own prosperity, striving to get more private property, without considering all the people around you, are sick. That attitude of selfish ambition is a bottomless pit, it will always lead to the dark side of human nature, no matter how rich or poor you are.
It’s not so much how prosperous anyone is, it is the difference in prosperity that causes problems. Once you have attained a reasonable standard of living, then you are responsible and accountable for ensuring that everyone achieves a reasonable standard of living. That means, investing in teaching people how to be prosperous and creating opportunities for people to be prosperous.
I agree that good leaders should be well paid, but leaders that work only for their own benefit, at the expense of the people they are leading, are not good leaders. Good leaders understand that your human resources are your most valuable assets and making sure that they are well compensated is one of your most important responsibilities. All employees should own the company they work for and should get a profit-sharing check, in addition to their wages.
Find ways and means to serve other people, no matter what your present circumstances are. Write down a list of goals. What would you like to do to earn a living? Find something you like doing and write out a plan about how you can accomplish that.
Be realistic. Take small steps. Build on your successes. Write a budget for your personal life. At some point, write down a formal business plan.
Whether you work in your own private enterprise, in a small business or in a big business, you are the CEO, the Chief Executive Officer, of your own free enterprise. Execute your own business plan. Update your plan every once in a while and follow your own plan.
Self Improvement
Learn to love learning. Read. A lot. You should always be reading a book. I prefer non-fiction, but even reading fiction is a good way to learn. I do not recommend reading the obscene violence and corruption that seems so popular these days. Read uplifting stories, not stories about the dark side of human nature.
Study. Learn. Build something valuable, instead of playing video games.
Get in the habit of watching video tutorials about subjects you are interested in working on. Make yourself valuable. Make yourself a high performance teammate in your trade. Learn how to work well with others.
Study sales and marketing. Dale Carnegie’s, How to Win Friends and Influence People, is a classic story about how to work well with other people. Make sure everyone gets a good deal trading with you. Add value to society. Make the world a better place.
Learning Culture
Every school should teach children about being productive and managing their financial affairs well. Personal financial education, increasing the financial intelligence of every student, should be a required subject in every school.
Every homeless shelter should be a vocational rehabilitation center. We should provide anyone who needs it, food and shelter. Nothing fancy, just minimal private space, with public showers and dining room. You’ll have to pay rent to get a private bathroom and walls that go all the way to the ceiling.
Every prison should be a rehabilitation center, teaching inmates elementary level work ethic, financial intelligence and citizenship training. The civics training is part of the penalty for committing a crime. Criminals will be required to complete the training, in order to be released from prison.
Provide counseling and clothing allowances to help people make themselves presentable and employable. Clean yourself up and cultivate a productive attitude and actions in your own life. Unproductive people are worthless. Make yourself valuable by being productive.
Think about what you can give other people, rather than what you can get from other people. I’ve been homeless myself. I know it is not easy. The desperation is painful. A lot of people are not going to be sympathetic and some will take advantage of poor people.
You don’t need to worry about that. Just keep learning. Keep being productive. Keep serving other people. Keep working on your business plan. Write your plan down and follow your own plan. Never give up.
Keep working. Both, the quantity and the quality of your work is important. Be a prolific artist. Persistently increase your productivity and improve the quality of your work. Life on earth is a never-ending process of self-improvement and service. Persistently improve yourself and serve other people well.
Photo by Bob Mccoy, Holistic Home Office Photo by Mihaela Rosu, iStock Photo by metaworks, iStock