It's time for our leaders to grow up
3 Aug, 2011 By: Daniel G. Jacobs LM Direct!After weeks of acting like petulant children, at the eleventh hour, our elected leaders finally passed a plan that raises the debt ceiling avoids default and hopefully lowers of our credit rating, which would cause jumps in interest rates — effectively stalling whatever meager recovery might have been in the works.
As of this writing, America's credit rating is safe, but is being given a negative outlook (by at least one rating agency), meaning a downgrade is still possible. And by all accounts, this near-crisis was entirely of our own making. Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, whether you think we should cut spending or raise taxes, isn't really the issue. Our government, it seems, has devolved from the role of leadership, which often requires compromise, to an ugly power struggle. It's not about what's good for the country, but what's good for the party.
Imagine running your business the way our legislators runs this country. I suspect you'd be out of business long before you'd be able to get so heavily in debt. And if your employees were as inefficient as many of our government programs, you'd be looking for a new line of work.
Some might argue we've no one to blame but ourselves. After all, we elected these people into office. Perhaps so, but I'm not sure electing other candidates wouldn't have brought us to exactly the same situation. The system has taken control of our senators and representatives, rather than the other way around. They spend half their time running for re-election and the other half trying to prevent the other side from doing anything that could be construed as positive, lest they look good in the eyes of
the electorate.
Sadly, I'm not sure what the solution is. I admit, it's easy to kvetch, and I offer few answers. I believe it would take a huge effort on behalf of our elected officials to collectively agree to put aside their egos and get back to the business of running the country.
It's not that different than what countless business owners do with their operations.
Simply put, one of the keys to success is knowing what your limitations are and hiring people better and smarter than you are to run those areas of your company.
Not a numbers guy? Hire a CPA. Not great with computers? Get yourself an IT consultant. Not great with people? Hire an HR manager. The list goes on.
The key is to take your ego out of the equation and go back to doing what you do best.
Is that too much to ask of our leaders?
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