I had a coworker who was in Marketing but got a bug up his ass to change his life, and went into “coaching.” It was clearly some kind of Silicon Valley success coaching because he totally flipped personalities and became a CEO archetype. He got out of Marketing and managed to become a mid level executive at a company that sold itself to Oracle. For them, this was a big payday and a big success and he used it to go get some venture capital and start a company, which he headed.
I was talking to him at some point in all this and he described how he wanted to make a shift in his life.
“I want less doing and more causing.”
In other words, I want to call the shots for other people to do the work, because doing work is not glorious or enriching enough to offset my small dick energy.
Now don’t get me wrong. “Causing” is important too. We need people to come up with good business plans and break them down into prioritized tasks. We need people to secure funding so a team can then spend 6 months building a product. We need someone to make a major business deal so that product can get exposure and find customers. We need someone to decide what to work on / not work on from an informed position with some clear long-term vision. We need people to figure out if two groups should merge because they’ll both benefit.
All of that is “causing” instead of working but it supports working and aims working at the right priorities. We love to shit on CEOs for doing nothing but most people want to show up to their job with clear instructions of what to do, and they want that to be part of a larger plan that’s well thought out and will lead to big success for all.
If we expect that from our managers and leaders, we should recognize that it is a job. I’m not saying they all do it well, just that it is a thing someone needs to do. We’ve all worked under jackasses that do it badly, but some of us have also worked under really good leaders who do it well, and we know it’s game changing.
So yeah… you can cause a billion dollars to be made, even if you can’t “make” a billion dollars with your own two hands.
The real question is how that billion dollars should be shared between the causers and the doers. Our system favors the investors above all (they own the company, they are the capitalists in capitalism). So they really are the ones that get the lion’s share. But the causers who work right under them are the next in line and they get fantastically wealthy too. Because what’s capital if you can’t get someone to turn it into more capital for you? The causer may be the only person the capitalists ever talk to.
The actual workers are just commodities that get bought for a given price. And this is where our system really fails society. I would like every worker and causer to be part owner and have a real stake in the success of their venture, and share in the risks and rewards. This might mean more risk for workers: maybe slightly lower guaranteed wages but more equity that could go big or could amount to nothing.
This system operates today and is not some wild fantasy. I am a worker, but I just got my annual equity grant, and its market value is more than my annual salary. I can live on the salary but I am only really getting ahead in life because of the equity. Of course the executives and board and shareholders are getting obscenely wealthy. But I’m genuinely happy with my share and I want them to get obscenely wealthy because that means I’ll do nicely myself.
Why more workplaces can’t be like this is a mystery to me. And I don’t think it’s necessary to prevent anyone from ever becoming a billionaire - we just need a system where every billionaire made means 500 millionaires got made too. Thats still wildly unequal but it’s possible for everyone to thrive even if they’re not all equal.
I really agree with your comment. It is a relationship and that relationship has been tipped in favor of one side that has taken things to extreme and fails society.
You mention making the doers part-owners. I’ve always found buying broad based index funds that buy the entire stock market the easiest way to do that.
I wish we required (yes I know how people feel about that word) everybody to invest 10% of their paycheck into something like that. If we had started this 40 years ago the workers would all be owners and benefit from the raising stock market.
You’d also have to teach people to buy and hold for their career (the long-term) but some would still sell for dumb reasons like a new iPhone or PS5.
I agree with you in a sense that this is something that could have helped us not reach this point. However I don’t think it’s something that can help us move forward from this point. Income inequality has people at a point where they are foregoing medical care and even food. Many lack housing. Investing is an impossibility for people living hand to mouth.
Any solution has to include some redistribution of wealth even if all of it goes to investing, along the lines you are describing. People are strapped for cash so the thing to do is pay them in Index fund shares that vest slowly, just the way employee stock shares work. It we could give every American a 10% raise, all in slowly vesting equity, we could see some change from that in time.
For sure. Society has moved beyond a few breaking points. I still think something what you described in your reply would help ease some of the growing wealth gap even if implemented today, but I know actually realizing such a program is a fantasy.
I followed an index fund investing method and am now removed from many pain points of capitalism. I try to share this anybody who bring up “I am worried about my future as I have no plans.” Many enjoy the conversation, but if even one in a hundred actually makes efforts to follow it means at least they will benefit.
I had a coworker who was in Marketing but got a bug up his ass to change his life, and went into “coaching.” It was clearly some kind of Silicon Valley success coaching because he totally flipped personalities and became a CEO archetype. He got out of Marketing and managed to become a mid level executive at a company that sold itself to Oracle. For them, this was a big payday and a big success and he used it to go get some venture capital and start a company, which he headed.
I was talking to him at some point in all this and he described how he wanted to make a shift in his life.
“I want less doing and more causing.”
In other words, I want to call the shots for other people to do the work, because doing work is not glorious or enriching enough to offset my small dick energy.
Now don’t get me wrong. “Causing” is important too. We need people to come up with good business plans and break them down into prioritized tasks. We need people to secure funding so a team can then spend 6 months building a product. We need someone to make a major business deal so that product can get exposure and find customers. We need someone to decide what to work on / not work on from an informed position with some clear long-term vision. We need people to figure out if two groups should merge because they’ll both benefit.
All of that is “causing” instead of working but it supports working and aims working at the right priorities. We love to shit on CEOs for doing nothing but most people want to show up to their job with clear instructions of what to do, and they want that to be part of a larger plan that’s well thought out and will lead to big success for all.
If we expect that from our managers and leaders, we should recognize that it is a job. I’m not saying they all do it well, just that it is a thing someone needs to do. We’ve all worked under jackasses that do it badly, but some of us have also worked under really good leaders who do it well, and we know it’s game changing.
So yeah… you can cause a billion dollars to be made, even if you can’t “make” a billion dollars with your own two hands.
The real question is how that billion dollars should be shared between the causers and the doers. Our system favors the investors above all (they own the company, they are the capitalists in capitalism). So they really are the ones that get the lion’s share. But the causers who work right under them are the next in line and they get fantastically wealthy too. Because what’s capital if you can’t get someone to turn it into more capital for you? The causer may be the only person the capitalists ever talk to.
The actual workers are just commodities that get bought for a given price. And this is where our system really fails society. I would like every worker and causer to be part owner and have a real stake in the success of their venture, and share in the risks and rewards. This might mean more risk for workers: maybe slightly lower guaranteed wages but more equity that could go big or could amount to nothing.
This system operates today and is not some wild fantasy. I am a worker, but I just got my annual equity grant, and its market value is more than my annual salary. I can live on the salary but I am only really getting ahead in life because of the equity. Of course the executives and board and shareholders are getting obscenely wealthy. But I’m genuinely happy with my share and I want them to get obscenely wealthy because that means I’ll do nicely myself.
Why more workplaces can’t be like this is a mystery to me. And I don’t think it’s necessary to prevent anyone from ever becoming a billionaire - we just need a system where every billionaire made means 500 millionaires got made too. Thats still wildly unequal but it’s possible for everyone to thrive even if they’re not all equal.
I really agree with your comment. It is a relationship and that relationship has been tipped in favor of one side that has taken things to extreme and fails society.
You mention making the doers part-owners. I’ve always found buying broad based index funds that buy the entire stock market the easiest way to do that.
I wish we required (yes I know how people feel about that word) everybody to invest 10% of their paycheck into something like that. If we had started this 40 years ago the workers would all be owners and benefit from the raising stock market.
You’d also have to teach people to buy and hold for their career (the long-term) but some would still sell for dumb reasons like a new iPhone or PS5.
So yeah…
I agree with you in a sense that this is something that could have helped us not reach this point. However I don’t think it’s something that can help us move forward from this point. Income inequality has people at a point where they are foregoing medical care and even food. Many lack housing. Investing is an impossibility for people living hand to mouth.
Any solution has to include some redistribution of wealth even if all of it goes to investing, along the lines you are describing. People are strapped for cash so the thing to do is pay them in Index fund shares that vest slowly, just the way employee stock shares work. It we could give every American a 10% raise, all in slowly vesting equity, we could see some change from that in time.
For sure. Society has moved beyond a few breaking points. I still think something what you described in your reply would help ease some of the growing wealth gap even if implemented today, but I know actually realizing such a program is a fantasy.
I followed an index fund investing method and am now removed from many pain points of capitalism. I try to share this anybody who bring up “I am worried about my future as I have no plans.” Many enjoy the conversation, but if even one in a hundred actually makes efforts to follow it means at least they will benefit.