Stop Complaining, Make Something

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Earlier today I tweeted:

Dear #OWS and other young people:

Stop whining. Get out and make something. You are in charge of your future, no one else.

Thanks, –USA

Today we live in a truly extraordinary time. Never before have we lived in an era where more opportunity is available to more people. Computers and the internet have knocked down nearly every barrier to success. Seth Godin wrote about the opportunity:

The opportunity is there for anyone (with or without a job) smart enough to take it – to develop a best in class skill, to tell a story, to spread the word, to be in demand, to satisfy real needs, to run from the mediocre middle and to change everything.

Occupy Wall Street (and all the associated movements) completely defies what is amazing about today. I hate it because it’s sending young people every wrong message. Instead of inspiring the youth of today to create amazing things that add value to the world, it’s inspiring them to complain.

I guest lecture for undergrads at my alma mater, UT Dallas, every semester. It’s hard enough for young people who are being bombarded with messages that the economy is tough, that companies aren’t hiring and the unemployment rate is high. You think that complaining about some finance conglomerates (who by chance employ hundreds of thousands of people in the US) is making anything better?

Get out of the park and rethink the finance industry. Instead of protesting their ways, build something so great that society has to listen to what you’re doing, and take them down.

Stop kidding yourselves, we have nothing to complain about. Our parents’ generation actually had something to fight about. Young men were being forced into risking their lives in military service for a country no one even wanted to defend. We don’t live in the days of a feudalist society where “the 99%” are oppressed into serving people.

Instead, make something. Make a dent in the universe. The only thing holding anyone back today is your own drive, determination, and execution. VC money is flowing faster than tap water. Make something people want to pay for. Sure, you’re not going to be a puppeteer, but you can still change the world if you’re passionate about what you do.

And to our media. Let’s spend more time talking about amazing people like the 6th grade iPhone developer. People are completely rethinking the world as we know it. Media, Finance, Banking, and everything in between is about to change.

You can be a part of it. Or keep playing into our Gen Y stereotype and complain and act entitled.

Take your pick.

  • Sean Palmer

    I mostly agree with you. But it’s wrong for banks to be able to borrow money at negative interest rates and then turn around and evict people with underwater mortgages. So OWS still has a point. And you’re right, this should be a time of unprecedented creativity. But with scarce credit to individuals, and high unemployment, people can’t afford to take risks. Look at Maslov’s hierarchy - humans need some minimum level of stability before you can ask them to be creative.

  • shawn

    This is a ridiculous stance. There are plenty of valid things to be upset about, and the suggestion that we should just pretend that those problems don’t exist, or just work around them is not good advice.

    Yeah, the internet is awesome and we’re lucky to have it, but does that really mean that we should just accept that the financial industry gets to dictate so much of our government policy?

    Not to mention issues that are completely at odds with what you’re suggesting. For every middle school iPad App developer you can show me, I can point out an App developer who’s been shut down by the patent law nonsense. Or students who are graduating with significant student loan debt (which they can’t legally get out of, while the institution that loaned them that money likely has government guarantees on the loan) who can’t find a job to get some basic experience in the working world. Is it realistic to expect all of these people to be able to afford financing even a basic startup?

    I think you’ve massively overbought into the idea that all you need to do is start a company and work hard and you’ll be successful. Sure, it happens that way for some people, but there’s just as much luck involved in that as there is skill and effort.

  • http://mcgvr.com BJ McGeever

    I think I have to side with Shawn on this one, Marcelo.

    I get the desire for people to stop complaining and start doing. On that I agree. There is little excuse to squat in a park for weeks and protest.

    However, I appreciate what Shawn has to say. There are things to protest. Just because our parents’ generation had it hard, doesn’t mean we must roll over and take whatever hand they were dealt. The previous generation certainly didn’t, and that’s why our situation is much improved.

    Also, Shawn’s completely right that not everyone can “get out and make something.” That is quite an oversimplification. It just is not that easy to go be/do whatever/whoever you want. Many of us are constrained by circumstances outside of and to powerful for our control. For some, thriving or being the best they can be will simply be learning to maximize the situation that they’re in.

    I honestly wish all of us could make a dent in the universe. I sure as heck hope I do. However, not everything is possible.

  • ChrisC

    Your post is just another variation on the tired “get a job, slacker” mantra. People aren’t protesting because they can’t get a job (though I can’t expect anyone with a devoted worldview of pure self-interest to understand that) they are protesting because of our nation’s decades-long slide toward greater and greater inequality— Inequality amongst communities, inequality between generations, and inequality between citizens of countries with economic and political muscle and those without.

  • Matt

    You have this Utopian vision where everyone can be a Steve Jobs and change the world! They just need to do it! But does that change the foundation of everything that is wrong with the banking industry and the regulations and what role the government is playing in all this? You can tell every 6th grader out there to make a iPhone game but that doesn’t change the core, the very basic idea that those big ideas are severely corrupt! You are everything wrong with an opinion, go educate yourself first on knowing what is right and wrong with this country. The problem is we haven’t complained for YEARS and that is why this country is in such bad shape. You need help.

  • http://davidcrellen.com David Crellen

    Part of your rationale is correct in that we shouldn’t complain about corporations that aspire to be good citizens and create “insanely great products” with the help of “fantastic employees”. But I also agree with both sean and shawn in their rightful complaint about the actions of financial institutions.

    I think civilization has evolved an additional economic and political system. Today, we not only have communism, socialism and capitalism, we have financialism within which Wall Street operates.

  • Wilbur Goltermann

    The behavior of the banking system over the past years borders on - actually crosses the borders of - criminality.

    They caused the collapse of 2008, and while average people have seen their costs of living increase, and their earnings simultaneously decrease, the wealthiest 1% have seen their incomes and net wealth grow dramatically. And all the while, they resume the same speculative behavior that caused the crash.

    The government’s solution? - further decrease regulation along with their share of tax revenues. In other words, reward their criminal behavior with a larger share of the economic pie. F%$# that! Put the perps in jail and go back to the economic policies that were put in place after the “great depression” - regulate the hell out of them.

    Without such regulation, and without attempts to restore the middle class to the prominence it enjoyed in the 50s, we will continue as a nation to slide toward economic oblivion.

    That we continue to believe that we are a country of laws, should be backed up by jailing the lawless.

    That we continue to believe that the American dream is alive, is a fantasy unless we have a viable middle class.

    The most productive period of the American economy was the 50s when the incremental tax rate on large earnings was over 90%. Let us return to economic property for all!!!

  • kevin

    you need to stop complaining and go make your own occupy wall street movement.

  • Glass House

    M, Your article is in fact a complaint of sorts nor do I see any creativity in your suggestion for alternate solutions. Your solution is a tired old stance which you have simply repeated and put no creative thought behind. I feel it’s this kind of lack of self awareness that ultimately suffocates the world.

    One old mantra that still holds true is changed starts with ‘self’. Steve Jobs talked about how he reprogrammed/changed his self before starting Apple.

    Have reprogrammed your filters and broke the enslavement of mental processes enstilled by our current civilization?

  • Don

    Complaining about complaining.

    The Occupy movement isn’t about rethinking the finance industry. It’s pointing out that the richest have been cheating and manipulating the industry in ways that 99% of us can’t. Did you see the 60 Minutes investigation on Sunday about how Congress is legally allowed to participate in insider trading? Do you think your business will ever get a $1 billion tax credit like Bank of America did last year?

    At least the Occupy protestors are educated about what they’re complaining about.

  • Total

    No, you’re absolutely right. This country wasn’t built on complaining, it was built on entrepeneurial innovation. So when those OWS slackers put out stuff like this:

    “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. [long list of whiny complaints deleted]”

    we should be properly critical.

  • Total

    Oh, wait…hang on. That was an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. Sorry, I got my browser windows mixed up.

  • CD

    your confusing making art w/ demanding justice. both are important.

  • CD

    “we have nothing to complain about” what a stupid fool. read 1984 and how we lose our privacy little by little everyday. we went to war after we were lied to and have spent 10 billion/month for 10 years. i make good money and certainly dont complain about income, but to act like everything is perfect is just wrong and blind.

  • Mike

    I don’t want to call you an asshole, but I will anyway.

    Hey asshole, you wouldn’t even be writing this article if these issues weren’t brought up to begin with. #OWS brought these issues to everyone’s conciousness, and instead of taking on these problems you’re suggesting everyone to merely work around them.

    It takes guts for people to speak up and say “No”.

  • Jake

    Creativity is exactly what they are participating in. It’s the same creativity that was at the roots of our country becoming a country. Democracy starts with “this ought to be different” and ends in creative change. Making a difference against the entrenched powers that are gaming the system is a pretty big endeavor, involving lots of “drive, determination, and execution” - I’d bet.

    I have a feeling that if the British could have penned a similar essay. “You have a chance to populate and tame this new world, get off your asses and till the earth. This is an unprecedented time in our history! (We’ll be back to collect some tax money. Sorry.)”

    I agree though, creating a web site or an app would solve income equality and create a fair playing field for all. I wish they had thought of that. Then they wouldn’t have to live outside.

  • Simon Jester

    I think some of you are missing the point. There are plenty of things to protest about. But whining in the park is not a solution. This is like the three year old pitching a screaming fit in the grocery store because mom won’t buy him candy. Look for solutions. Complain, protest, sure. But then move forward and find ways to eliminate the problems and replace them with solutions. Don’t just wallow in the park kicking and screaming.

  • Don

    Simon, what makes you think sitting in a park is the only thing these people are doing?

  • Simon Jester

    Well, I left out the vandalism, rape and assorted other activities.

  • http://www.dillondesigncompany.com Mark Dillon

    I am 27 years old. I paid my way through college by working 40 hours per week the entire time. My wife and I purchased a reasonably sized home and we now have a 20 month old daughter. I work hard in order to make myself indispensable to my employer and my wife works harder than I do raising our daughter at home. I have been employed by the same company for 5 years and my job has never been even remotely threatened by our slow economy. If I were to lose my job I could easily walk into Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc and get 2 minimum wage jobs based on my record of being responsible. I am not on government food support, government healthcare, or any other form of government assistance. Some months I have not been able to pay all our bills but most months we manage.

    The point is this: I am not exceptional. Every single person in the Occupy movement could do the exact same thing—could work just as hard. But they don’t.

    They choose not to.

    They choose to highlight some supposed vast injustice while living in a country that has less injustice than any in the history of the entire world.

    And they choose to hold out their hands like beggars instead of using them to create something of value.

    So, while the Occupy movement will waste another day worrying about what bonus the CEO of Bank of America took home last year I will be going to work tomorrow just like I have nearly every day since I was 14. And while I work I will hold tightly the thought of arriving back home again to a lovely wife and a smiling little girl who thinks my job is to save the world every day.

    I am not exceptional. I am the American spirit.

    ps — Thank you for speaking out for the silent majority here, Marcelo. And I’m sorry for rambling… :)

  • M.

    OWS served a purpose - to bring light to corporate greed. The Internet quickly blew it up into so much quirky me-tooism, as it does with everything. The Occupy movement is planking for people who outgrew planking. It’s not helping anymore.

    A generation of kids raised to believe that they are owed something exceptional will naturally end in disappointment. Start working harder, and change the system over time - that’s how America is set up. Stop thinking financial fairness is a right - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are what America guarantees, and are still in great stead. Stop comparing OWS to the Revolutionary War - revolutions are the way countries are born. They can only happen once.

  • jodon

    I suspect Mark Dillon alone will play a more significant role in making the world a better place than 99% of the people in Zucotti Park. I have no axe to grind but it simply has never occured to me to worry about how much money some other guy makes. I volunteer four hours a week helping kids try to pass the GED, there are never enough tutors, I wish half of those protesters could give half an hour a week (I’ve actually seen them march past our facility a couple of times). Corporate money influences politics, so does SEIU money, and I’d like to see someone try and push some legislation past the AARP. I don’t think this politics of envy and resentment is very empowering or uplifting. I wish I saw more positve energy, and I think that’s what Marcelo is talking about. Thanks for speaking up on behalf of the other 99% Marcelo.

  • shawn

    Mark,

    According to what you’ve said, you’re college educated, you’ve been working hard at a full-time job for the same company for 5 years, your boss considers you indispensible, you’ve made responsible purchasing decisions, and yet you still have trouble paying your bills some months. And you think that is acceptable? That that is something we should be happy with or aspire to? You’re nuts!

  • Rory Marinich

    I’d like to add my voice to those dissenting here, Marcelo. You identify yourself as a Catholic, yet you don’t see value in a movement which aims to help suffering people in need? Strange…

  • http://www.dillondesigncompany.com Mark Dillon

    @Shawn

    Yes, I think every American should be happy they have the same opportunity I do. My family lives off of a single income, I only have 5 years of applicable job experience in my field, and I choose to live in relatively small town. Based on these factors it is completely fair I have to struggle by some months. And I’m nuts? Really?

  • Uno

    “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” ― Some drunkard, I think his name was Churchill

  • D'Avignon

    I’m dissapointed you’ve chosen to take an adverserial stance towards the movement and dismissed it as out of hand and irrelevant.

    I took away two things from your post. You have the capacity for compassion but have chosen to butress it with contempt and a non curiousness about what the movement actually is about and how dire the economic situation is. Apparently a global system in which trillions of dollars of wealth are transferred to a subset of humanity with an urgency is that is completely lacking when actual human beings are suffering is lost on you. This is much bigger than just CEO’s getting big bonuses.

    Secondly, although I must admit this is an assumption, you are actually in a position where you do have the leisure and time to educate yourself on the imbalances and inherent inequity in the current economic climate. It is [em]unacceptable[/em] when as you rightly put it that we live in an era when there is so much potential in our generation yet our resource distribution is grossly skewed towards military ambitions, financial markets (that provide no value), promote old fossile technologies, and so forth.

    You can do better.

  • crenshaw159

    If all of this is true, why is there so much unemployment and underemployment. You write as though these forces are inexorable and inevitable, but the only inevitables here are that the rich will always figure out a way to make money from the rest of us. Clearly you love capitalism, but there are undertones of economic Darwinism in your words and expectations which could be twisted and taken all the way to economic Nazism. We who are doing well have benefited from our education and the support of the society which has created a good working environment which will recur, or so we hope. It turns out that there is not equal opportunity in this nation. Oh, but you knew that.