I don't always agree with Ben Stein, but I am a small business owner and this article hit me where I live. When you own a small business, you do have a boss: The Customer. Mr. Stein could not for the life of him get a lazy salesperson at Barnes & Noble to simply ship a book for him. Here is a long, poignant quote from a recent Ben Stein article "How Not to Ruin Your Life":
The next day in Chicago, I spoke to a gathering of physicians at a convention. After the speech, they told me that their No. 1 problem (after Medicare reimbursements) was finding workers who were actually willing to learn and work. "It's not a case of workers begging for jobs," said the man next to me at a post-speech lunch. "We're begging for qualified workers."
There's a point to be gleaned from this, and my friend Mike made it well after our debacle at Barnes & Noble: "I wish every worker in America had to be a freelancer at selling or writing or painting or carpentry or computer repair or law or something for two years. I wish Americans could have a period in their lives when they only got paid for what they sold and produced. It would do this country world of good."
