WorldWide Drilling Resource

56 SEPTEMBER 2015 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® According Michael E. Gerber, author of the best-selling “E-Myth” book series, the American Dream has been ambushed - no different than if it had been besieged by robbers in a dark alley. The way Gerber sees it, our confusion about the American Dream is the root of the problem and it’s time to get back on track. “Somehow we’ve forgotten our roots and why there was an American Dream to begin with,” said Gerber. “We’ve lost track of the reason why millions upon millions of people came here to try to make a better future for themselves. We’ve also forgotten that the dream never was a political one, but a personal one for each and every one of us. It’s the politicizing of it that’s created all the trouble.” Gerber has a great deal of experience in restoring faith in the American Dream. Over the past 40 years, the fiery 78-year-old has worked with tens of thousands of small business owners. He said the trick is giving small business owners and aspiring small business owners a splash of cold water to wake them up so they can see the American Dream isn’t dead, nor is their business. What’s missing is a lack of commitment to their own dream. To bring his point home, Gerber began a nationwide campaign this year in Riverside, California, where the city’s mayor, Rusty Bailey, helped launch Gerber’s first city-sponsored Dreaming Room. Gerber invented the Dreaming Room in 2005, describing it as an “entrepreneurial incu- bator”. He’s been delivering it to individuals worldwide ever since. The Dream Room is a pro- gram for the unemployed, underemployed, self-employed, or small business owners who find themselves stuck in their current un- workable circumstances. In an intense, small-group setting, they go through a step-by-step process where they create, collaborate, and test ideas to develop or improve their current circumstances by inventing a new business. Once developed, the concept for their new business is put to work. “In the process of inspiring and leading them and mentoring them, some- thing remarkable will happen. Each and every individual will understand, many for the very first time, that he or she and no one else is responsible for their circumstances.” For Gerber, economic development is all about the individual, and personal responsibility is the key to making it in America. “It happens with the individual or it doesn’t happen at all. Every single individual is accountable for their own economy - an economy of one. “Our economic problem has been created through the belief that big government can solve our problems. We then created a monster of a government that presumes to think for us. That’s why our economy is in tatters. It’s why the number of people on food stamps has grown exponentially. It’s why the number of people who are impoverished has grown, and the number of unemployed has grown exponentially. It’s also why our federal debts and deficits have grown beyond the pale.” Gerber said we need to revisit the past before we can move forward to a better future. “[We need to go] back to those inspirational days when the nation took its first awkward steps, the Constitution was written, and the Bill of Rights was tacked on like a brilliant afterthought.” The American Dream was never meant to be political and when it becomes such, we miss the chance to follow our own path to liberty. “When people speak about the American Dream, they more often than not say that it isn’t alive anymore. The mistake they make is to believe that the American D r eam l i v e s ou t t he r e somewhere, rather than in here where each of us live.” Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth books Where is the American Dream? Adapted from Information Provided by Newsandexperts