THE FASTEST RAT IN THE RACE IS STILL A RODENT
Over the
last 50 years, I’ve given hundreds of speeches to ambitious students, eager educators,
anxious graduates, new business builders, experienced entrepreneurs, seasoned
executives and owners/operators of large and small companies. And,
notwithstanding the perils of repeating myself, I have always offered a few
basic “perspiration” principles which I believe have more than stood the test
of time at least until recently with the arrival of Trump 2.0. where anything
goes, everyone’s out for themselves, honor, sacrifice and loyalty are all
regarded as foolish notions, and all that matters is who you can blame and
abuse, who you can buy or bribe, what you can make your own and what you can
get away with taking while you’re at it. None of this bodes well for the next
several generations and there’s really no near-term relief or solution in
sight. But we owe it to ourselves, our kids, and our employees to say
something. It’s not enough to simply note that the fastest rat who wins the
race is still a rodent. (See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/leadership-employees-president-trump-communication/91250512.)
My primary pitches and premises for decades were simple: have
a realistic goal, work hard toward it every day, pay attention to your
customers and the people around you, focus on what’s important and what matters,
sweat the details and pay your dues, tell the truth even when it hurts, have
each other’s backs, and try hard to treat everyone fairly. The basics never
really change, but these days the ways they’re regarded and valued - like the
skill sets of millions of older workers - are constantly shifting in the wrong
direction. Everyone today needs a trick or a gimmick; there are sneaky shortcuts
and cheap cheats for everything – shame on you if you can’t find them – and only
the little people still need to work hard for a living.
I
used to argue that the ultimate goal for anyone trying to grow and move ahead in
an organization was to be the “go-to guy” – the one that everyone else could
count on, rely upon, and know that he or she would go the extra mile to get the
job done. (See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/to-succedd-be-the-one-everyone-can-count-on.html.)
Five simple guidelines for getting things done: Stay up (perspiration), Step up
(passion and commitment), Study up (preparation), Stand up (principles and
morals), and Buck up (perseverance). The world was never really fair, but we
believed back in the day that it leaned toward the ones who worked hardest and
cared the most and bent toward justice. These days it’s all about dodging the
bullets, dirty dealing, avoiding the blame and staying in the shadows so the
“boss” gets all the glory.
Today,
even as I write these traditional concepts, I’m overcome by the feeling that
they’re sorely out of date, naïve, and sadly pollyannaish. In the Trump world, where
grifting is a religion, trust is a distant and much disparaged idea, and scams
and schemes stain every part of the government, the entire feckless and grossly
unqualified administration is filled with robotically obedient and fearful
fools constantly looking over their shoulders to see who’s most likely to stab
them in the back. They don’t even understand that Trump prefers to humiliate
people, tell them to their faces that they’re worthless, and stab them squarely
in their guts. Even if you please this corrupt and venal pig, your days are
still numbered because he cares about no one but himself.
This
is what our kids, employees, customers and clients see every day on their phones
and screens where none of these criminals and perverts make even the slightest
attempt to hide what’s going on – they preen and gloat instead - or how they
feel that the old laws and moral behaviors simply don’t apply to them. This is
the message and the permission that the Orange Monster has given them and all
the MAGAts with the cooperation and connivance of the Supreme Court and the
ultimate submission and cowardice of the Congress.
As a
result, we’re all finding it harder and harder with a straight face and any
degree of confidence to tell a young man or woman what the new ground rules are
for success, why it still makes sense to act honorably and honestly, and how
they should prepare themselves to function in a world that seems like a
Washington Wonderland. A time and place where the rules, the laws and even the
facts are fluid and change regularly at the whims of someone who rarely
remembers (or flatly denies) whatever he spewed the day before. Dementia Don is
putting the whole country and our democracy in peril as we watch helplessly and
listen to his lies.
As
Humpty Dumpty declared: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to
mean — neither more nor less.” When Trump speaks these days and lies out of
both sides of his mouth at the same time, it’s pretty clear that not even he
understands what’s he’s saying or what he means. He’s ignorant and unwilling to
learn, he’s arrogant and utterly amoral, and he’s a demented sociopath. His enabling
sycophants and sorry suck-ups like Noem, Hegseth and Leavitt are even worse.
They stupidly lie to our collective faces more fervently every day with spurious
suggestions claiming that we are fools to believe what we see and hear with our
own eyes and ears. Their arrogance knows no bounds and they’re shameless and
eager to rub it in our faces.
Frankly,
I never thought I’d write a piece like I did a couple of weeks ago where I expressed
my sincere hope that Netflix had found and employed its own “fixers” and “guys
who knew guys” so that it would have a serious prospect of overcoming the efforts
of the rotten government regulators, crooked administration flunkies, and even
the overt and public pronouncements of the Crook-in-Chief himself as they
combined to interfere with, interrupt and otherwise influence the outcome and determine
the winning buyer in Warner Bros Discovery deal. (See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/netflix-warner-bros-discovery-trump/91282958.)
But
these are the sick, corrupt and demented times that we live in today and this
is the business world that every upcoming entrepreneur, business owner, manager
and operator needs to work in. And it’s on us to tell them something. I’ve
already told businesses that in the fragile, confused and shaky post-pandemic
world with elections right around the corner the smartest thing you can do is
hunker down and take it slow. (See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/four-rules-for-the-next-six-months.html.)
But
now I’ve also had to alter and temper my advice to the up-and-comers. Here’s
what I’d tell your team, your peers and your kids today.
1. No
one wants to be average or just do a “decent” job.
Now
is simply not the time to take giant leaps or make waves. It’s frankly a time to
be grateful for the job that you have and to concentrate on doing that job as
well as you possibly can. No one enjoys playing for a tie, but for the moment
good enough may be plenty. It’s OK to have big dreams for down the line, but for
now patience and solid performance are the priorities. Remember that you’re not
working solely for yourself – plenty of others are depending on you as well –
inside and outside of the office.
2. Having
low expectations is the key to happiness these days.
Everyone
wants to set the world on fire in a good way except, of course, Trump who’s
happy to burn the whole place down and run off with the billions he and his
family and chums have stolen. But for us working stiffs, at the moment, it’s an
entirely different calculation. I used to say that, if you settle for less than
you deserve, you’ll eventually get even less than you settled for, but now I
think that it’s most important to accept gratefully what you’ve earned, focus
on your family, save and protect what you have, hunker down, and remember that
there are unfortunately millions in our country who have far less to be
thankful for than you do. It’s not everything, but it’s far better than
nothing.
3. Get
used to disappointment in our “leaders” – it’s par for the course.
At
the circus, the crooked carnies at least know that they are carnies. They don’t
try to kid themselves like our corrupt politicians and grifting leaders who
like to pretend that they’re statesmen and serious professionals when the fact
is that they’re all on the take and all bending over to placate and avoid
Trump’s wrath even as they watch him mentally fall apart and circle the drain.
They are all just praying that they don’t also get sucked in when the toilet is
finally flushed.
4. If
you want to succeed, keep things simple, small and specific.
No
one’s saving the world these days and sadly too many of the standard charitable
activities are too broad, too random, too vaguely impactful and often spending
their funds in the wrong ways and places. Arbitrary empathy is largely an empty
gesture for all concerned. If you want to make a difference and actually have
some connection to and satisfaction from your efforts, stay simple, small, and
specific. Help one person, one family, or one business to start.
Maybe
things will get better in a few years. The further away the future is, the
better it looks. Right now, it still looks pretty bleak.
