Giving Thanks for American Ingenuity
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Regain perspective. Capture the World.
Reaching a goal is marked with obstacles and challenges, setbacks and successes. It’s thrilling when you see the accomplishment, but it’s easy to quit when responsibilities crowd you. One day of feeling wiped out from a long day at work or when the kids take a little extra energy can sound the siren’s call of the recliner.
“I deserve this time to relax and watch…just a little television,” you say. “It’s been a tough week.”
Unexpected reminders about why it’s important to press on each day even when a goal seems miles away can provide perspective. Last week, it came from our president. His comments about income and entrepreneurship gnawed on me when I first read them. With respect to him, they lacked common sense. As I mused about it, it boosted my motivation to disprove his comments.
Here’s the excerpt from Michelle Malkin’s article on Thursday, November 25, 2010:
Last summer, President Obama opined that the proper role of private entrepreneurs is to fulfill “the core responsibilities of the final system to help grow our economy” — and that “at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” Last month, VP Joe Biden boasted that “every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive.
Malkin goes on to tell the story of Jerome L. Murray, a brilliant inventor who had a long, illustrious life of inventing ordinary items we’ve all used at one time or another: generators, TV antennaes, pressure cookers, power automotive seats, electric carving knifes and countless other things. His career was not the apex of utilitarianism. It was, as it always is, to satisfy himself and to make his family proud. The greater good was just fortunate enough to benefit from his smartness.
Murray’s self-interested capitalist pursuits yielded untold benefits and conveniences for the rest of the world. In the tale of the mundane electric carving knife lies a profound lesson: Liberty, not “government vision” yields innovation.
Our need to invent, build and create comes deep within the the human spirit. For those of us who dream, write, publish or run a business, we do so because we want to look back at our lives with satisfaction rather than regret, not to satisfy a narcissistic and self-serving government.
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