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Post by Bruce Serven
Ok, lots of people are currently unemployed. Realistically, what can we do about it—how can we fix it? . . . There's lots of talk out there about this or that when it comes to unemployment and how to fix it. There's also plenty of unnecessary finger pointing and whining . . . There was once a saying that unless you are part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. So what can we do, each of us, whether employed or unemployed, to fix the problem and get people back to work?

I am addressing the problem by creating new B2B services that help clients solve the problem. By helping clients get more business, I am engaged in an active effort to help their employees keep their jobs. But this is only part of my strategy.

I distribute through a network of independent account development (sales) folks, and by setting them up in business, I provide a means for them to self-employ in a profitable enterprise. I train and develop them, but they create their own results and function as business owners in their own right.

Likewise, our graphic design, video production, and web development teams are all independent contractors who provide their services on an individual project basis. We share our experiential knowledge with them to help them build efficient, productive studios that compete effectively in the climate of outsourcing.

I just don't have faith in big corporations providing jobs reliably with any degree of stability. Most of the folks out there without a job understand that reality. I am convinced that by transferring to our workers the knowledge of owning and operating their own business, they are enacting their own freedom. Therefore, my contractors enjoy a more equal footing with the company that benefits from their performance. They are also free to cultivate other working relationships, with other clients, so that they remain stable in the event one source of work dries up.

Things have changed dramatically in corporate America. The business world (and the employment of retention of labor) are just not the same anymore. If people want to be employed, they need to be open to other models of work, not just "look for a job."

Admittedly, it's not for everyone. Some people "need" to "have a steady job." Unfortunately, jobs are anything but steady, and the illusion of security is so compelling that it keeps people "stuck" in their job until that job disappears, leaving them with outdated skills, limited experience given the narrow focus of their now-dead job, and they are expected to find a new job in light of these very real deficits.

To sum up, workers need to turn the page and get the training they need to create the jobs they want, rather than depend on an employer to provide one. The diversity of work and results-oriented nature of that work that is available is staggering. With a little re-training and reconditioning of the attitudes and mindsets that run so deeply in most employees, they can raise their own awareness of opportunities and prepare to address them with a whole new level of competence.

I have been following the thread and felt that I should add to my original comment to the conversation so as to clarify the process I'm enacting in my own businesses.

I understand that most people are not entrepreneurs, that most, in fact, prefer "having a job" and that determines what they're seeking out when they're out of work. But this was not always so.

For most of human history, people have been self-employed, mostly in agriculture, but also in cottage industry, where a whole family could perform the labor of the family's business and add the extra hired hands on occasions, such as during the harvest season, when work was abundant and additional help was needed. Entire supply chains were formed around small businesses that met the needs of their markets, both local and beyond. The spread of industrial processes put an end to such small scale operations, and the rise of corporations saw businesses aggregate and consolidate labor pools into "employees" who became essentially dependent upon the corporations for work. Such an arrangement is little more than one entity buying the time of another to perform the work it needs to fuel its profits. The business is largely out of the control of the very hands that make it function.

For people to begin to see the world from a different perspective—that of the entrepreneur—they must first change their mindset of what it means to work and what value their work represents to the marketplace. If one thinks only in terms of an hourly wage or an annual salary, one is not thinking as an entrepreneur or business owner, because that's an employee mentality.

Though I certainly have taught people to change their thinking from the "employee" to a "self-employed" or "business owner" mindset, I also advocate teaching our children to have that mindset from a young age. We have to stop teaching our children the lie that all they need is a "steady job" and that their employer will "take care of them." It's simply not true. If we're serious about turning the tide in the U.S. to a society that is friendly to small business and suspicious of the Gigantic Corporation, we need a change in behavior on a massive scale. But it all starts with a change in mindset.