The American Dream

After watching different news channels detail Micheal Jackson’s life, I was left quite disturbed. A lot was wrong with the whole scenario, but I will only focus on the one part that frustrated me the most; the common depiction of the ‘American Dream’.

Each channel kept saying that Micheal had achieved what most Americans aspire to be. They were not talking about his fame, art work, family, friends, or philanthropy. No, they were talking about his wealth. They kept showing pictures of his $400 million dollar house, and comparing it to where he grew up in Gary, IN. They were defining the American Dream as going from humble beginnings, to massive wealth.

Seems pretty nice right? But there is something much larger missing from this picture. Is our only motivation in life to accumulate the most ’stuff’ and keep it all to ourselves? What about our fellow Americans who were just as capable as we are, but were never given the opportunities that we were? Today Gary, IN is no better off than they were before Micheal became wealthy. Instead of sharing his fortune to help out people in his community, he created a personal paradise that ignores everyone else. It is not only his fault, but rather a larger reflection of our values. George Carlin had a good stand-up about this phenomenon:

There has to be something more that we as Americans can aspire to. Almost every religion teaches that wealth does not lead to lasting happiness. Hedonism creates momentary happiness that quickly fades away. It also increases the amount that it takes to truly make us happy. Right now my car is an old Honda Civic. If I were to buy a Bugatti Veyron tomorrow, the Honda I have now would no longer make me happy. Its sunroof would seem insignificant compared to 1000 horsepower Bugatti, despite the fact that I truly enjoy the sunroof now. I would now need to drive a car similar to the Bugatti to reach the same level of happiness that I used to enjoy in my Honda. Studies have even shown that the happiest people on earth are usually the poorest. Many people say this is because of the very low threshold for happiness that poor people have.

I’m not saying that the American Dream is to shed all personal wealth. Rather we need to start viewing wealth not as an end goal, but as tool that has the potential to bring happiness to a large number of people. The American Dream should be for each person to aspire to make a lasting positive change in as many people’s lives as possible. The American Dream should be based on how we can all succeed, and building a community (and country) that is better for everyone. Personal wealth and the stockpiling of insignificant material goods will only get us so far. For us to truly live to our potential, we must focus our efforts on improving the lives of everyone around us, and not just ourselves.

On the first day of my Business Ethics class, our teacher handed out a piece of paper that said:

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice
that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Its in this spirit that we have started Dreamdone. Together we can improve our lives, our community, and fulfill a new American Dream.