#JazzSinger #opportunity #ChangingWorld #RegularJobs #schools
In the 1980 movie version of “The Jazz Singer,” Neil Diamond’s character’s father, played by Sir Laurence Olivier, tells him, to paraphrase: You have to know where you came from to know where you are going.
That’s a very loaded statement, as we’ll describe throughout. The background is that Olivier’s character wanted his son to be a cantor in the synagogue, not a “jazz singer” – or, in Diamond’s character’s case, a pop singer.
Olivier’s character had a proscribed life for his son. His son had other ideas.
Diamond’s character admits later in the movie that he knows where he came from, and now knows where he is going – to fulfill his dream of being a pop singer. He even decided to divorce the nice Jewish girl he married to connect with a woman who encouraged his dream. That woman was played by Lucie Arnaz.
This story illustrates how the children of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were raised. Their parents taught them to look for safety and security as they grew. They discouraged dreams. Meanwhile, schools taught kids, in large part, how to be good employees.
They taught this by establishing routines, enforcing schedules and enacting discipline for violating the norms. They were told when school would start, when it would break for recess and for how long, when it would break for lunch (and for how long) and when it would end for the day.
That would teach kids the rigor of regular employment. After all, regular employment was the goal every parent had for his or her children. Higher education goals came in later, but top priority was regular employment.
Today’s world turns that upside down. Thinking outside the box is generally rewarded, provided it’s done with good in mind. Kids that can solve problems, or make generational wrongs right, are considered successful.
Regular employment used to mean prosperity over time. Now, it barely signifies survival, in many cases. The once steady jobs are not so steady anymore, usually through no fault of the employee.
Companies have to be nimble. They have to find ways to succeed in a changing world. Sticking to long established routines just won’t cut it anymore.
So, where do you fit in? How are you going to find success in a world that changes by the minute?
Fortunately, if you are willing to work and are willing to check out something you may never have thought you would ever do, there are many ways to prosper, or at least augment your survival, that are available to anyone, regardless of education, experience or background.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
We all, or at least most of us, know where we came from. That may have nothing to do with where we are going.
We were all taught that America was the land of opportunity. We just weren’t always encouraged to take advantage of opportunities available to us.
But we can ALL change that. We just have to be willing to look at different things. We all can’t be pop singers, but anyone with the talent can certainly go for that.
We may not want to sing the same tune our parents taught us. We may have to find a sheet of music that will suit us better in a world playing in a different key from our parents’.
Peter