Somebody Else Built My Business

It was years ago when my wife and I were having dinner with cousin Shelly. At some point, the conversation turned to the economy and the role of business. Shelly informed me that America was built on the back of government and the faithful bureaucrats who toil in anonymity, those who taught our children and built our bridges and roads.

I can’t remember what I was eating, but I must have swallowed it whole. There was total silence. I then asked Shelly if I had understood her correctly. She confirmed that my auditory receptors were functioning properly. Those intrepid risk-takers we call entrepreneurs are not critical in growing the economy and creating jobs; rather, the government was the fount of any economic success.

I tried to explain the fundamental role of government was to provide security, a system of laws that were fair and enforced, an educated citizenry, and infrastructure. This ensures all Americans with the level playing field that allows each of us to apply our God-given talents in the pursuit of our individual happiness. I cited inventors like Eli Whitney, Samuel F. B. Morse, Henry Ford, the Wright brothers, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, all to no avail.

Shelly was unconvinced by my argument. For her there were no heroes, no American genius. There was just a collective effort.

Last year, Elizabeth Warren made the same argument as cousin Shelly. Warren is currently running for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts. “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own,” she contends. If you are a factory owner, you moved your goods to market on the roads “… the rest of us paid for … You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police and fire forces that the rest of us paid for….” I didn’t invite Ms. Warren to dinner to explain that the hypothetical factory owner undoubtedly paid substantial taxes to support all of the functions she mentioned in her collectivist rationale.

Flash forward to July 13 — President Barack Obama is in Roanoke, Va. on the campaign trail without his teleprompter. The 5,000-word message: “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Total silence on my part. Cousin Shelly, Elizabeth Warren, and now the president of the United States.

Finally, I understand. I didn’t contribute to my business success. The thousands of owners and entrepreneurs we interviewed at The Business Journal didn’t contribute to their business success. All success is due to society’s collectivist efforts. All businesses are indebted to government agencies like the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food & Drug Administration, which gave us the foundation to prosper. Government is the ultimate risk-taker and provider of sustenance.

Mr. President, I wish you had told me sooner that my success would be a result of someone else’s efforts or gifts. I could have avoided those decades of 75-hour weeks while I tried to build the business. Now, I find out there was no need to max out my credit cards, invade my savings, or remortgage the house to raise funds for the business. All the concern I had about meeting payroll was unnecessary or the nights I lay awake wondering how to grow the business. And if I failed, the government would surely be there to rescue me.

How foolish of me. I could have joined the president for over 100 rounds of golf in the last three-and-a-half years rather than work at my business, since all success flows from others.

Soon, I will instruct my editorial staff to review the 17,000 business stories in our archives and strike the words “entrepreneur,”  “free enterprise,” and “risk-taker.” Going forward, we will attribute business success only to the government and its minions and denigrate all those phony dreamers who think they are instrumental in creating success. I shall also recommend to my board of directors that we change the name of our corporate entity to the George Orwell Business Journal.

Thank you Cousin Shelly, Ms. Warren, and President Obama for explaining how to build a business. Since somebody else built my business, my only request is that you introduce me to them so I can thank them for my success.       

Norman Poltenson is the publisher of The Central New York Business Journal. Contact him at npoltenson@cnybj.com