“You can be whatever you want to be.” This statement either has limited meaning or is a myth. It’s fine to say we can choose the kind of person we want to become – honest, ethical, caring, generous, or dishonest, unethical, cruel, self-centered. Even so, it’s unlikely that everyone can become a fighter pilot, brain surgeon, concert violinist, CEO, super-model, or NBA star. We all have certain talents and abilities. And the job market does not allow most of us to enter the highest echelons. “The air gets thin up there,” I was told, and the laws of probability make it extremely unlikely that 90 percent of us can “be whatever we want to be.” That said, most of us can probably do better and even if we never land our dream job, we can still do very well.
Some of us have had bosses to whom The Peter Principle clearly applied. They rose to their level of incompetence, and they remained there – often unaware. Probability offered them a choice opportunity, but they ended up relying on the work of others to get by. On the other hand, there are millions who do good work every day. Their efforts make civilization possible. The world rests on their shoulders, not those of Atlas, so if they shrug, the world is in trouble. Yet, we’ve been taught to think the world depends on “great men.” It seems to me those who want things to be great depend on armies of good people doing things that must be done – dirty, dangerous, back-breaking, tedious, on-your-feet-all-day, thankless work. I’ve lost track of how many groups have been bashed in recent years – police officers, teachers, public health and election workers, and many others. In 2020, some jobs were declared non-essential. I still wonder what that means.
I also wonder about those who identify as leaders. Would the world still work without their input? How long would everything continue to function? I’ve heard too many stories about horrible bosses and the persons who did their work for them rather than risk the outcome of poor leadership. We have been protected from kings and presidents who were on the verge of making decisions that could have had grave consequences. Sometimes those at the top only act in their best interests. What counts is the number of people who decide civilization must go on despite those who want power more than progress or status more than stability. Civilization is generally not far from collapse. The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds before midnight. And the self-aggrandizement continues.
In the ancient world, salt was a valuable commodity. Salt preserves food. It adds flavor. It was and is necessary to life. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is the salt if it has lost its flavor?” (Matthew 5:13) Notice that he did not mention emperors, governors, Pharisees, Sadducees, or the rich. He called common hardworking people the salt of the earth, to honor them, to acknowledge their worth. Yet their worth can be undermined by grifters and charlatans. They can become discouraged by poor leaders. Every time a worker is exploited, some of their “saltiness” is extracted from the world. The salt of the earth needs competent, trustworthy leaders, not narcissists who do little more than talk about how important they are. As Mick Jagger and Keith Richards put it, “Raise your glass to the hardworking people. Let’s drink to the uncounted heads. Let’s drink to the wandering millions, who need leaders but get gamblers instead.” Hardworking people don’t just bring flavor – value – to the table, in a sense, they bring the table. Nothing has been built without them.
MurrayWorks 