Opportunity is everywhere

Gene Mage

Yesterday I met a new friend. Alima recently emigrated from Russia. This soft-spoken makeup artist came to Los Angeles only two years ago and has already made her mark on a city overrun with competition. Her work at the recent Oscars attests to that accomplishment.

While she was tackling the significant challenge of getting me ready for a photo shoot she made a comment that really hit home, “The only way to be poor in Los Angeles is to be lazy.” I let that observation sink in as I looked out over the sprawling landscape that is a living cross-section of the world economy, and began to think about all the whining we hear every day about how bad things are.

Frankly, I’m sick of the whining. I think I’m going to stop whining, starting today. I have nothing to whine about, and neither do you. And not because we are some how “lucky” or “fortunate” as the demagogues like to say, but because opportunity abounds, and the only thing standing between us and that opportunity is about four inches of gray matter.

How many times did we hear the late Earl Nightingale tell stories about people who came to this country and became marvelously successful after arriving with only the shirt on their backs and the dream in their hearts? That story has been told so many times that it has become a cliché. But it’s not a cliché. It is reality. It’s the story of America. It’s my story, and it is probably your story too.

With the rare exception of a handful of stuffy patrician aristocrats, that story is the story of virtually every American.

My great grandfather came to this country over one hundred years ago with only a box of woodcarving tools, which were promptly stolen upon arrival in New York. He left Russian persecution to face American persecution. He fought racism and hardship by working hard, going to night school to study dentistry, and never for a moment considering victim-hood as an option. His descendents became doctors and lawyers, chemists and dentists, businesspeople and writers, college professors and artists.

How dare I, even for a moment, with all of the help and privilege I have been blessed with by God, utter a word of complaint because the universe has not organized itself for my convenience with just the right job or economic climate. My economic climate does not depend on some overstuffed politician passing a bill or creating a make-work job at taxpayer expense. My economic climate depends on my energy, passion, professionalism, and effort. And so does yours.

Could you imagine what would happen in our community and our state if we were to reconnect with the spirit that built this region a century ago? It’s still happening today. But why sit around and bemoan the millions of successful immigrants who are rewriting the American story every day when we really ought to be getting off of our collective rear ends and rewriting our own stories.

Opportunity abounds. We live in an eight trillion dollar economy. That’s eight thousand billion dollars cruising through our “weak” economy every day. Jobs are being created all over the place. No, they are not the same jobs that were created in the last century. They are new jobs in new businesses. They are jobs that require minds more than hands. But please don’t be snowed by politicians talking about weak “job-creation” numbers; these nineteenth century thinkers fail to count the millions of people who start businesses and work in entrepreneurial settings.

There is only one thing that can keep you from prospering – you. Why let the negativity of others persuade you to stop trying? You are uniquely gifted to serve this community in your own distinctive way. Nobody else in this world can do what you can do, because nobody in this world is like you. Get up, get in motion, and discover who needs what you’ve got.