With Ben and Hollie expecting a baby come April, I was leafing through our article ideas materials looking for an idea for this article. One of them is ‘would you recommend your kids get a job in this industry.’
Now, I am a long way off having kids (probably unqualified in the eyes of some to offer this opinion), but that won’t stop me offering my opinion on whether or not I would get my kids to get a job in this industry of newsletters (whatever that is).
I’ve just finished reading ‘The World Until Yesterday: What can we learn from Traditional Societies’ by Jarred Diamond – so that coupled with some interesting patterns started to stew.
In the West we often see a pattern where great wealth is built in the first generation, grown in the second and squandered by the third. The third generation never has experienced ‘lack’ so will lose the money that has been built up because they feel entitled to it and don’t appreciate what went into getting it in the first place. A fool and their money are soon parted.
The second generation appreciates how hard the first generation worked or have been involved in acquiring it themselves and usually have the experience to grow the first generation’s wealth.
So, would I recommend my kids get a job in this industry?
There aren’t that many jobs in the information marketing industry at large, the majority of these businesses operate lean with few employees in ‘kitchen table’ type operations. That is the first problem. The second is, it is relatively easy to start these businesses and with the right skill set run your own business – why go and work for someone else?
In many western dynastic families, children are given a job in the family business, leaving them forever dependent on their parents in some ways. In hunter-gatherer societies, children able to walk are basically treated as adults, many are expected to contribute to food production once they reach puberty.
It’s common to see children playing with knives, near fires and doing all sorts of dangerous things. Why? Because the child is considered autonomous. You cut yourself playing with the sharp knife, it’s your fault; you put your hand in the fire and burn because it was hot, your fault. Imagine that attitude at a child care centre.
Yes we would consider it child abuse but it seems to result in very little teenage rebellion in traditional societies and generally they grow up to be very happy adults that socialise well. Compared with the ‘adults’ our society turns many would consider it an improvement.
Personally I value freedom – I see no freedom in jobs. The only true freedom in the west is the ability to create your wealth from nothing. That is what I would want for my kids.
It’s a good industry to get work in if you want a job but a far better way to be able to create your own wealth and if your parents are in the industry it could make it easier to acquire the skills you need for your own business – for that reason I wouldn’t mind it if my kids worked in our industry, but I would prefer it if they became producers – capable of creating their own wealth and run their own businesses.