Left Behind

Growing up, I always heard that the United States was leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the world. Now that I am older, I see how deceptive that that statement is. I have had the opportunity to network and have many friends of different ethnicities around the world, and I see the difference in mentalities from those cultures. With this superior mentality, I think that it has had the opposite effect on the United States than what it should have. I feel that it has given people of this country a lazy, do just enough mentality.  There are a few points that I want to discuss in this post that have a direct correlation on the false perception of superiority complex that the United States has vs. other cultures.

Point 1: The other cultures (Indian, Asian, African, Jamaican, Haitian, Mormon, etc) have a strategy of what they need to do and are going to do to make enough money to live their lives the way that they want to live them without having to worry about money. They do not go for the easy majors in school. They have the discipline and fortitude to endure the hardships of majors such as Doctor/Physician majors, Engineering, Dental majors, Information Technology, Computer Science, and other high paying majors. People of the United States go for majors such as Social Work, Nursing majors, Theatre majors, Dance majors, English majors, Business Majors, Nutrition majors, and other low paying majors. The difference in the majors that the people of the United States go after is that you have to usually have a Master's degree to get recognized enough to get a job in it, and even with Master's degrees, those majors do not make any money. For example, Indian culture learned a while back that technology is the way to go. They saw that the way of the world was going to technologically based jobs. So they built their economy around it. They were very smart to do this. That is why you see so many call centers, computer based jobs, and other technologically adept jobs getting filled by Indian people. That is how they have built an economy that is thriving and they are excelling while some other cultures are getting hit hard by the recession. Indians also do not even think of going after the low paying jobs AT ALL! If it doesn't pay a hefty salary, they don't even bother to go after it. That is the mentality that is needed to change cultures and to be the majority as far as making money and owning things.

Point 2: The other cultures know the effect of having a world view instead of just living as though the United States is just a BIG bubble.  My friends from other cultures study abroad, and learn about other cultures. They don't just make money in the United States. They make money WORLDWIDE! They know different languages, and not just English. They take advantage of the world's opportunities, and are not afraid to travel. Listen people, when you make yourself a global commodity, you have just opened a whole new avenue for making money and networking. The rest of the money in the world is just as good as the United States dollar in my opinion. Money is money to me, no matter where you make it. A lot of people in the United States don't wanna travel globally and are missing out on these opportunities. Heck, some people that I know won't even travel on Interstates in the United States for fear. You cannot have a spirit of fear and expect to have the life that you want. To be truthful, a lot of people feel like they are going to miss out on things over here such as socializing with their friends, when honestly those friends are not even worth it. If you have an opportunity to study abroad in college or go to work in another country, take advantage of it. You have to think outside of the bubble that has been created to be able to see life in a different manner. Please see that the rest of the world is passing you by.

                Point 3:  When you look at the rest of the cultures, they harp on their children making GREAT grades, not just good, not just mediocre, not just getting by and meeting the requirement to move on.  The majority of people in the United States rely on the teachers to give their children what they need to learn. You can't have that mentality. Asians, Indians, and other cultures teach their kids to read more than the allotted time that is given by the teachers at their kids schools. They have their children learning the high powered math that they will encounter from an early age. That is why they seem so smart when you encounter them. That is the trick. You see, no one is smarter than anyone else. It is just that they have been acclimated and introduced to that all of their lives. So it becomes second nature to them when they do it. They also give their kids opportunities to explore technology and teach them to think outside of the limitations of their mind. My wife and I for example, have our daughter do her homework at home after she gets out of school, and then we make her do extra math and reading for an hour after she finishes her work. This is to not just meet her need, but to exceed. You have to expect greatness in everything that you do as well as put in the effort to achieve that greatness. Knowledge doesn't just come to you, it is EARNED by your extra effort. You see, my mother always gave me books to read from the time that I was 4 years old. We went to the library all of the time and she saw that I loved engineering, so she let me go and check out books about science, and building, and engineering to let me see those things and open my mind to see what was achievable. I always had a penchant for spelling and reading and was always light years ahead of my class and I always give thanks to my mother for fostering that drive and discipline in me. For real skilled disciplines such as Engineering, Doctor, Dental, Lawyer, and other majors, education is imperative. You will always be judged on your grades, spelling, and diction. So introducing your children to math, spelling, and other reading is a must!

                Point 4: Other cultures are business oriented. Almost all of the Asian, Indian, and African friends that I have, their families own some sort of business. They don't just want to work for someone, they work smart and learn things from that business and strike out on their own. Working for others is not in their view because they know that they will not make the type of money that they want, and most of the time, will not get the respect that they deserve. Be-it as it may, some people of other cultures don't speak English well, and that makes it hard on them to work in certain jobs. So they start their own businesses. For example,  a lot of Bosnians in the United States start their own Trucking Businesses because they don't always speak English well, as it is a second language. In trucking, they usually only have to talk to people when they are delivering or picking up their loads, or either talking to the dispatcher of their loads to try to locate where the building that they are going to pick up or deliver  is at. Therefore they go for those jobs to limit their talk time. This is smart on their behalf, as well as they have learned how to bypass the so-called ladder of advancement that corporate work culture asks for. Another thing that a lot of people don't know is that the United States gives immigrants grants to start-up businesses when they come over here, which I learned when I was in Residential Construction. One of our customers told me this. He was an Indian man and he owned 8 Subway restaurants. Another one of my customers was Asian and he owned 5 Asian restaurants. This was key as they gave me a lot of knowledge and insight and put me up on game. Other cultures aren't foolish. They might not speak good English, but they are far from not being smart. They have found a loophole in the system that helps them to advance. I can't say that I blame them for it either. They know that if you own businesses, and land in the right places, then you have just acquired the assets to garner you power to make decisions!

                Point 5: They key thing that I see in other cultures is that they have togetherness and to be truthful African Americans don't. The other cultures only buy from their own ethnicity and they keep their money flowing in their own businesses. It passes through their hands and communities over 20 times before it goes out to the rest of the United States. That is remarkable. They are suppliers of their products, wholesalers of their products, and they only buy from their own people. They live together with each other: grandparents, parents, and children. So with that philosophy, they save a lot of money! They always have enough food because everyone chips in, and with the mortgage being split up among many brothers and sisters, it virtually costs each person nothing. That is why you see the other cultures driving nice cars, having huge homes, and living the good lives. They have learned the aspect of working together.  

                If you don't understand Economics and what is going on in the United States and with other cultures then you will eventually be left behind. You can learn a lot from other cultures because each one has a strategy and their strategies are working and not only working, they are thriving. At this point, the people of the United States are playing catch up. As I stated, there is not one exact reason, but a conglomerate of all of the things that I stated above.  As you can see, superiority complexes don't always tell the true story. They create a false sense of security, and actually have fostered a lazy mentality where the United States is getting lapped in the relay race. The only way to change the results of the downward slope is to change mentalities and be proactive in teaching kids and young adults to broaden their horizons and to look at the strategy that other cultures are doing, because they obviously are thriving and the people of the United States are falling far behind in Education, Economics, Technology and Business.  So are you out in front with the big dogs learning from the other cultures or are you getting lapped and left behind?

~Marks of Wisdom