Labor Day Thoughts
I think people tend to think that being the boss is some glamorous gift handed out to only "privileged" people, but that diminishes the absolute death grind it takes to build a business.
"The CEO should work at the same pay as his lowest paid employee."
Okay, but the CEO is the one with the grey hair, the sleepless nights, the entire risk of all the lives depending on the decisions they make, the one through the mud if it doesn't work out, the one not taking pay to ensure their employees are fed during lean times.
As a woman and mother, I'm also faced with the endless guilt of the nights I work rather than play board games, or the conversations interrupted by a crisis call from an employee or the "Mom, it's summer break, why can't you stay home with me?" 😭
It can be simultaneously true that CEOs should earn more while also asserting that the lowest paid employees should have a livable wage, a line I try to gracefully straddle.
But to diminish success to mere "privilege" is to negate an amount of hard work most people would never conceive of, let alone be bothered to do.
Entrepreneurship isn't something handed to a person. It is an identity, the air we breathe, the thoughts we weave throughout our waking days (and in sudden jerk-awake moments at night, "Did I pay the UPS bill?!").
I would like to gently suggest a change in how we look at this.
It is privilege to be able to create a business, but that privilege is denied to very few and to diminish it to "just privilege" is to deny the fact that this country we live in was built by those who were willing to break their backs to innovate a better future.
When we tell ourselves that success only comes to the privileged, we're protecting ourselves from failure by never trying. That's fear-based thinking disguised as social critique. The truth? Building something meaningful is available to most of us, but the cost is so high that most people choose not to pay it. And that's fine. But don't call it privilege when someone else was willing to pay.
And THAT is what's on my mind as we enjoy Labor Day weekend, a weekend I have worked through, just like every other weekend.
