We’ve all seen those national polls that rank the career fields that are most, and least, respected by the general public. Perennially near the bottom of those polls lurk such assumedly sexy careers as Wall Street bankers, Fortune 500 CEOs, and, of course, the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, according to the 2012 Public Affairs Pulse Survey, 88 percent of the general public has a favorable view of small business owners with 53 percent of that number having a “very favorable” view.
The survey cited another resonating statistic: 52 percent of Americans say that small business owners have high ethical standards, compared to 8 percent for large company CEO’s, a number which includes such fallen luminaries as Volkswagen’s ex-CEO. Ouch, I would say, to my Fortune 500 CEO friends, if, of course, I had any.
And congratulations I would say, to my small business friends, of whom I have many. Yep, you folks surely do rock. You most certainly are my heroes.
Personally, I don’t find that Pulse Survey’s findings all that surprising. While I can’t readily think of more than a couple of heroes lurking within our U.S. Congress and only a few more that populate the Fortune 500 CEO ranks, I can easily come up with a barrelful from the small business community right here in Bend, my home town.
For instance, there’s the woman who owns a rocking-hot clothing company that’s a B Corp, the husband and wife team who are the proprietors of a small business that makes space-age paddles for the standup market and a close friend of mine who owns a very cool web development business, while still finding plenty of time to give back to the community.
I should mention here that Bend’s small business owners earn their hero status largely as a result of their sterling and unblemished reputations within our community. Word travels fast in a small town (population = 85,000) and bad actors don’t fool anyone for long. In addition to me appreciating our small business owners, most of their employees would consider them to be heroes too, ditto with their customers. Not to mention our city, state and federal governments, to whom most small businesses pay their taxes on time, thereby financing much of what our governments do. Or don’t do.
So, why, you ask, do I have this unadulterated admiration thing for small business and the people who pursue it? Because, I’m partial to people who get things done, today rather than tomorrow, sooner rather than later. Make a suggestion to a small business owner, or provide her with an insightful idea, or show her how to bake a better pizza, and what happens next? Whammo, she starts building the oven.
What she doesn’t do is to first consider whether or not, by building that oven, her job security is on the line. Nor does she consider whether or not she’d be intruding on the Facility Director’s turf. Nor does she have to worry about whether or not her boss’s boss will give her the green light to pay for the oven’s construction.
Instead, she orders the damn thermostat and calls the electrician.
Yes, small business owners are the kind of people who get things done, which means they are the kind of people who create jobs, foster innovation and hasten change. As if that isn’t enough, they are also the kind of people who start the businesses that go on to become our nation’s household names; people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the Google Boys, all of whom were once small business owners too.
While small business owners are my version of today’s American folk hero, I did not say that everything we (yes “we”, my wife and I have both been small business owners for more years than many of our peers have been alive) do is always done right. To the contrary, we make more mistakes than just about anyone I know, with the exception of the aforementioned U.S. Congressmen. Some of those mistakes are made because of misplaced enthusiasm, some because of lack of preparation, and some because of the fear-driven carelessness that evolves from worrying about meeting tomorrow’s payroll. Sadly, this proliferation of mistakes has always been the number one enemy of the kind of people whose role in life is to get things done.
I must warn those of you who might be considering entering this exhilarating career—small business is addictive. I hated it occasionally, loved it usually, and needed it always. Even today, 50 years after our mutual love affair began, I still need my daily small business fix. And I wouldn’t trade the career I’ve had with anyone, except for maybe Arnold Palmer.
And finally, someone once said that every person, to be happy, needs someone to love, a place to work and a dream to pursue. For me, small business provides all three.
Jim Schell
Working on cool stuff
Jim.Schell5@gmail.com
541-788-7137
