Entrepreneurship does not absolve you from this issue; it merely shifts the perpetrators of injustice from “bosses” to “clients,” “employees,” and/or “regulators,” as you have begun to experience. And pocketing the cash? That’s nice, but only until you’re no longer a single-shingle. Then comes compliance, taxes, and payroll administration; marketing and service delivery costs; sales people who angle a little extra for themselves or try to keep a deal under the table; employees who do unacceptable work and then threaten a lawsuit when you try to counsel them into a more appropriate position through a performance plan… the list goes on… as soon as you have money, a line of people forms and they all have your pockets in their sights.

Bottom line: you can’t escape the injustice of the world, and no one person is strong enough to change it overnight. You can’t unplug, you can’t rise above. It looks like you should be able to, but looks are deceiving. You’re best bet is to figure out how to maximize your influence so you can mobilize the troops and work as a team to effect change. And for most people, that starts with a job where they can learn the ropes in a reasonably safe environment.

Success doesn’t start with any particular type of job or in any particular place. Success starts with an attitude of success.

“Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you their permanently if you let it. Not you me or anyone is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. So if you know what you’re worth go out and get what your worth but you have to be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him or her or anyone. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that.”

That being said, to ignore social injustices (change your beliefs instead of the world around you) for the sake of money is putting a price tag on beliefs. Depending on the belief, if you reevaluate it and it isn’t a value or a personal moral then fine. But when 400 people in the U.S. have as much money as the remainder of the poulation there is something wrong and I don’t need to know anything else than that to know that all 400 are not generous, nor do they care about society as a whole.

Why? Because the real judgement that stifles society is the myth that the unemployed, single parents on welfare, homeless etc. are freeloaders, lazy, drug addicts etc. Over the years I’ve worked a few stints in downtown Houston and I recognize the core group of homeless have been there for years. I can not work there for years and come back and see the same people. The ones that stay almost all have something in common. They never ask me for money, rarely speak to anyone except themselves and dewlusions and have exhibit behaviors like repetitive movements or jerking which are all signs of mental illness so dibilitating they of course can not work and wouldn’t know how to even ask for help to some kind of state school etc. Oh they are given food by passers by and local churches but as long as they remain helpless without a roof over their head then there are definitely NOT plenty of generous wealthy people.

I know you are trying to help and I am not here to bash you in any way. I can see you are doing something you believe to be good and that has worked for you. It worked for me too.

I earned a BA in Journalism and was told by members of my family, including an aunt who was married to a reporter that I was being “unrealistic” by wanting to write. But I did it hundreds of times over and self published four books along the way. I willed that to happen because I honestly did not learn how to truly write news until I pulled off what was “unheard of” and had a major marjket newspaper be the first to publish me. To do that I had to try and am still trying to eliminate words like can’t from my vocabulary.

I worked for a large human resource firm’s call center directly out of school and in three years earned a slew of raises, a promotion and shared some ideas on the CEO’s internal blog that got his attention and a spot writing for his blog. But then the first of many crisis of conscience that has me refusing to work for large corporations now happened. Layoffs had been rumored for April 2007 for a solid year. They got the month correct but to avoid paying severance packages they instead concluded a six-month long email sweep that in one day eliminated 50 jobs. I watched many of my friends get escorted by security to the door in tears. Some emails contained violations like cussing etc. and some contained innocuous jokes that HR had to really reach to terminate people. Of course I learned that personal emails don’t have a place in company email but because I was called into an office and verbally warned for being the worst offender, having used the f-word to a friend, it became clear that my influence as a go-between from the CEO to the common worker got me special treatment. Suggestions started to roll in from executives on my upcoming blog post that made it clear I was going to be a spin docctor. I lasted five days that were so miserable I would literally vomit once a day at least. So I left amicably as I was taught and told my supervisors I was leaving to pursue my writing career and that’s what I did.

I was fired from a newspaper without warning or explanation I have to assume because I had caught one of the editors on tape admitting to making up quotes for people. I thought I was going to get brownie points for preserving some journalistic integrity and I was praised for my quality and work ethic up until that day.

Another paper termed me a year in for refusing to accept a $1,000 check for realizing I was not exempt from overtime and was owed $8,000. I was heavily criticized by coworkers and family for “throwing away” my job until several months later the matter was settled for $20,000. I was forced to hire a contingency lawyer because I made a very small salary, but when a contingency lawyer takes an illegal term case in a “right to work” state you know you have been wronged.

Shortly thereafter the bank bailout happened and my mentor, a 30+ year award winning veteran at a major newspaper was laid off and now teaches English in China.

I started a successful business online until sudden account restrictions with a certain payment processing company put my online store in the red. There is now a class-action pending with hundreds of plaintiffs. I did learn however that asking “how high?” when a customer says “jump” is a lot easier when you pocket the money instead of your bosses and executives. So I can’t get with discouraging entrepeneurship as long as a sound plan is put into place. But corporate greed and breaches of terms have me again retaining a separate lawyer on contingency and waiting for inevitable settlement for damages.

I have not seen your course but I have to wonder if you aren’t inadvertantly taming worker bees to keep lining the pockets of the 400. I am not accusing you and you really seem like a concerned parent wanting to use your knowledge to get kids jobs.

Can you clarify by giving some examples of beliefs you would have your children change? And when you say they caan’t change the situation anyway aren’t you discouraging the type of free thinking that made a Muhammad Ali transcend boxing, ended segregation, got women the right to vote etc.?

Because if I have learned anything it’s that the type of change that helps you and your neighbors starts with big beliefs and an unwillingness to yeild.

Corporations break the law and face litigation daily yet we are indoctrinated into what we are told is “freedom” and will fight to protect the very same companies from regulation because we are told it would limit our freedom. I now have a new purpose and am looking for a publication I can stand behind but even in this economy, I will sacrifice housing, food etc. and join the homeless rather than adding to the problem. Someone has to, yet I know I have a feeling I can put my talents to use for the cause.

Again please understand I am this isn’t personal and I’m merely asking for clarification. I came here because I think some of your lessons could be useful in getting back into the mindset of interviewing and I do need to make sure my beliefs don’t carry me over the line to a point that I misjudge what might be a great job that fits with my ethics. I’m 32 and graduated in 2004 so I’m not far removed from the grads and I do know I have to stay teachable but I formed my strongest convictions through experience, curiousity, questioning everything and research. As a reporter I want to always be free to tell the truth, positive or negative and so far I have found that the mainstream news is bound by corporate America and I have experienced censorship so as not to anger an advertiser.

Do you really think I should change that belief to benefit myself?

Thanks for letting me post and I appreciate your time.

1. “Don’t worry” and “It’ll be easy” are two totally different statements!

2. No one said it won’t be hard. No reason to make it extra difficult by adding self-imposed stress.

3. The people who want experience actually don’t want experience. What they want is to not have to worry about or pay for your training. If you’re willing to train yourself—and can demonstrate that (not talk about it, but demonstrate it) before an interview, you can get around that objection.

For your second question, yes their are countless articles online that will show the most demanding jobs for the coming years and the most beneficial degrees and academic concentrations you should invest in for lets say… the best starting salary or opportunity for career-growth. In regards to gender distribution for different types of careers, I’m sure you can find research on that quite easily through the internet but to be honest I don’t think you should be discouraged to pursue a major simply because of this. As I can tell right now, like 8 of 10 jobs that have great salaries and are in demand (and will be in demand for the coming years) are engineering types of jobs. To generalize even further, jobs that are technical and require specific skills are the way to go if you’re looking for stability and longevity in a shaky economy.

For your third question, law degrees are still valued and sought after but not to the degree it was perhaps a few years back. A lot of this has to do with the fact that people are reluctant to take that huge gamble to take out a loan that big in size in this day and age and especially because student loans for the most part will be stuck with you until you pay them off period.

The only advice I can give you is never stop having a social life because networking and developing an out-going type of personality will serve you wonders in your future endeavors. Those little awards in high-school and picking the exact classes don’t count for all that much in my opinion but they can perhaps highlight some of your strengths for your college application. Your goal right now should be working hard academically to fulfill those requirements to make it to a great university and perhaps exploring a bit into what academic subject and study you are most interested in. Don’t stress too much over it at this point though, you’re in high-school, it happens once and if you worry too much about the future, you’re going to pass up the memories you can make in the present. The fact that you’re even on a website or blog-site for “finding a job” tells me you’re planning wayyyyy ahead, which is good, but really… just stay focused and have fun!

KP—Degrees are far from worthless; they’re just common. And “cheap and willing to work hard” isn’t a knock, it’s a fact of life: young professionals haven’t received 15 years of steady 3% salary increases (which, at those #s and assuming equal talent, would make the younger professional 33% cheaper for the same work), and generally, younger professionals lack the types of personal obligations that make them have to leave work at 5pm on the nose (for instance, fewer of them are married, have kids, elderly or needy parents, etc.) They also haven’t been chewed up yet, so they’re more willing to dive into tasks without thought of political ramifications. These are definitely generalizations and won’t hold in every circumstance, but they’re true more often than not.

Getting angry at “what is” won’t change the reality. Better to embrace it and make it work for you!

And, as a final note: not every problem in Corporate America can be traced to malfeasance at the top. Sometimes, things just don’t work out. And sometimes, crooks end up doing more good than harm. (Britain would certainly claim that was the case with the treasonous American colonists!) Let’s not be so quick to crucify others en masse.