According to the stories handed down to me by my father and grandfather, five generations ago my great-great grandfather made a very important decision. He had been born into a farming family in southern France in the mid 1800’s. He was one of five sons in the family. One of the brothers was chosen to inherit the farm after their father had passed. The options for my great-great grandfather and his three other brothers were as follow: 1) stay and work the farm; 2) leave. This was the custom offered by the culture of that time and place.
The upside of the first option meant a secure roof over his head and a full stomach, as long as the farm was successful, the option’s key downside was he could not marry. This last point assured that the land would be passed down only to the children of the brother who had been chosen to take over the farm.
The second choice was leaving, and making it in the world on his own with no support from his family at all.
I am where I am today because my great-great grandfather chose, what I believe to be, the riskier of the two choices. I am thankful for his risk taking.
Many Americans have similar ancestral stories. An important point to keep in mind, is that while many people that came to America as immigrants in the first 200 years, were from Europe, their lives in Europe were fairly constrained. If your father was a shoemaker, you were likely destined to be a shoemaker whether you wanted to be that or not. The advantage of staying and becoming the shoemaker (or farmer, in my case) was a more certain likelihood you would have steady work, albeit confined to the one skillset. If you were a woman, your choices were even more limited. I am sure I am not the only person in America whose ancestors made, or were forced to make, very similar decisions. But his decision was paramount to me being aware of the risks one must take in life. That was the culture of the time period. While innovations occurred in Europe, they occurred at a glacial pace. But coming to America, that was different.
Coming to America meant you could be anything you dreamed of being. You were free to make your journey in life as you wished. There was no one to tell you, you couldn’t be what your dreams told you to be, as long as you had the drive to try to get there.
In America, it was different. Innovations happened every day. New ideas, new products, in fact most of the technologies we take for granted today were invented here. America was where things were happening. So, if you lived elsewhere and wanted to take risks, well you’d better head for America and get there as soon as you could. America was “Business Friendly”.
To bolster my point about America, when you go to a classical art museum, the majority of what is on display is not from America. But, should you visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., virtually everything in that museum was created in and made in America.
So, what is different today? In many ways, it is still the land of opportunity, for those risk takers who have the next great idea tumbling around in their heads. These ideas take people to implement and thus create jobs which provide income to workers and help them raise their families and live their dreams.
Unfortunately, there are many Americans today who do not realize the freedom this country offers them to make their dreams come true. While there is certainly historic evidence of some ventures taking unfair advantage of people, the majority have been able to bring useful products and services to people all over the country providing a better lifestyle and jobs that employ people, and then for them to provide for their families.
America is not perfect and has made a long journey by changing along the way. But America strives to improve herself, just like a person who wishes to become better must work at that improvement. In one sense, today, there are more opportunities than ever before.
Having an open and business friendly environment and helping young entrepreneurs to succeed while providing an environment in which they can flourish, should be a standard goal for all of us. Encouraging new ideas and the people who have them to bloom by lowering barriers that prevent such blossoming business is essential. A true pro-business environment will allow America to continue on its journey of being the place where people continue to come to make their dreams come true.
There are, however, parts of America that have lost their way and have forgotten why people came here many generations ago. Even within the DFW Metroplex, there are areas that have increasingly made it harder to conduct business. More regulations and process red tape have started to slow down growth, progress, and innovation. If we want to continue our trend of improvement, this is the area where we must place our focus. Because the truth of the matter; a business friendly environment is necessary for freedom to exist.
Louis Darrouzet
Chief Executive Officer
Metroplex Civic & Business Association