Showing up isn't good enough

Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of life is showing up. While Allen was a part of some good movies, it’s hard to imagine his famous quote to be truly applicable, especially in regards to the poor economic situation we find ourselves.

“Jobs, jobs, jobs” is the message we hear both locally and nationally as the way to economic recovery. With the latest national unemployment rate at 9.5% and an irregular pattern of people entering and exiting the workplace, it’s hard to say when the key statistic will show satisfactory signs of improvement. This comes at a difficult time because as easy as it is to say there need to be more jobs, we’re also going through a transition requiring a change of focus. In the future, successful results will rely not on how hard we work, but how smart we work and the ideas we can generate.

Companies are continually trying to produce products and provide their services as efficiently as possible while maintain a certain level of quality. It’s nothing new; you can look at most manufactured goods over the past century to see the gradual decline of manpower needed to produce it. Advances in technology make it a fact of life. Why have three employees when one can do the job just as good or even the possibility of none with the assistance of a computer?

Most people would agree these are good things and a sign of our advancement as a productive society. Good for capitalism as it increases margins and leads to growth, bad for the old standard of job creation in the manufacturing sector. Lower employee needs in old industries is creating the demand for new industries to be created.

We were always told when we were growing up if we worked hard and put in the hours we’d be rewarded. Although certain aspects will always ring true in terms of work ethic and attitude, it’s being efficient with our time and effective with our decisions that will really make the difference individually and as an overall economy. The creativity and flexibility to think of new and better ways to do things allows for the creation of manufacturing jobs to produce new technologies. It will also provide new jobs for the expanding service industry because no matter how advanced our technology is there are some areas where good employees are not replaceable.

It’s hard to know where the majority of jobs will come from once the economy is back to full-strength, but it’s safe to say many of them will be created through the creation of new businesses and different production lines. The entrepreneurial spirit that is so unique about America will be what eventually puts the unemployed back to work. Traditional employment centers have adjusted to lay-offs they were forced to make, but they can begin to employ again, not into the same jobs as before, but in new ones they create through launching new business lines and products as an expansion of their companies and even into new industries all together. The opening of small businesses will serve job creation in much the same way.

In the end, the politicians and pundits can argue all they want about what tax breaks, incentives, or stimulus will spur these actions to take place, but the true difference will come from the ideas companies, both big and small, generate along with individual entrepreneurs that will lead to real job creation.

While there is still the need to show up, leaving the rest up to a small 20% just won’t be good enough anymore.