In 1970, a 2985 word essay for The New York Times revolutionized the world…
Of course, this silent revolution of the mind has largely gone unnoticed over the half century that followed it. But, it was a revolution nonetheless.
And it has dramatically changed the way we think about the world, business, ethics and even capitalism.
The essay was penned by the renowned economist Milton Friedman who was yet to win the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis and monetary theory. It was titled “A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits“…
…And this essay made a then radical claim…
According to Friedman, the ONLY responsibility of a corporation was to increase profits for its shareholders, or in other words, the owners. And by extension, this meant that the only job of the CEO, and the rest of the executives, was the single minded pursuit of profit.
Of course, in our modern world, this is exactly the case. In fact, it even seems a little absurd to make such an obvious statement: “a corporation’s job is to make profits” or “a CEO’s job is to pursue profit”. Duh! We already know that! What’s so special about it?
Well… Not so fast. Hold your horses a minute…
It Was a Different World Back Then…
What you have to understand is that this notion that the only job of a corporation is to make profits was not always assumed or accepted as an axiomatic given. In fact, prior to the Friedman doctrine, corporations and their leaders, saw themselves as socially responsible entities that had an important role to play in their communities, their nations and even participate in the world’s development.
This was both assumed and also acted out in a variety of ways – such as boasting about paying taxes or giving large donations. Yes, there was a time when corporations were proud of paying taxes, whereas now, share prices increase the more corpos can avoid them.
Ultimately, this notion of “social responsibility” was part of most corporation’s DNA. And it manifested in a number of ways, including the way they treated their employees, nurtured pension plans, sheltered workers rights, and even contributed to a variety of social programs in their communities.
But all of that has changed…
Our Brave New Cyberpunk World & The Friedman Corpos
Our world has changed precisely because the Friedman doctrine proliferated across the business world and our culture accepted it – which is now called the shareholder theory or stockholder theory – as the de facto theory of business ethics.
In other words, Friedman’s revolution succeeded, neoliberalism won, and primarily starting with the Reagan administration, dominated markets all over the globe, setting the standards for corporate behavior.
While there are a number of criticisms to Friedman’s doctrine, and even pushes for a counter revolution in the form of “stakeholder capitalism” by entities like the World Economic Forum – I hate to tell you – the cat’s out of the bag, and it’s not getting back in!
Friedman doctrine is here to stay.
A big part of the reason why Friedman doctrine succeeds and why corporations act it out is because it aligns directly with capital interests who essentially control all levers of power. And whether you like it or dislike it… That’s besides the point.
The truly important point here, and why I wrote this article, is that while the business culture has accepted the Friedman doctrine completely, our social culture as well as our education culture has not.
And this rift of philosophies causes a horrendous environment for the average professional…
The Shackles of a Lagging Mindset of Four Generations
You see… Investors and executives who have adopted the Friedman doctrine approach the workforce, and work in general, with a very specific “trader” attitude. They want to get the maximum “bang for their buck”, while minimizing all risk and dependency to anything – which includes any human resources such as contractors or employees. And they have ZERO philosophical, intellectual or emotional qualms about it.
In fact, they see corporations as social machines specifically invented to achieve this end!
Make no mistake: The modern corporation as a legal entity is a well oiled machine that is designed to extract maximum labor from it’s human resources at the lowest possible cost. It is also designed to keep it’s human resources as replaceable as possible in order to minimize risk. That is the recipe for maximizing profits and beating your competition in the market.
The modern, acculturated and domesticated employee, on the other hand, approaches this trade relationship with an employer with a completely different set of assumptions, ideas and emotions.
Specifically, the vast majority of employees still hold onto many delusions that predate the Friedman revolution. These include:
- Loyalty is important and my loyalty will be rewarded
- If I’m loyal to the company, the company will be loyal to me
- Not all companies are all about money
- My company is not like that
- My boss is not like that
- My company is responsible to its employees, their families and their community
- My company shares my values
- It is wrong or unethical for a company to let go of loyal workers, especially those who have worked for them for many years
- My company would never do that
- If I put my time in and do a good job, I can work my way up
- You have to earn your position and work your way up
- I need to put my head down and do my work to be successful
- Hard work is it’s own reward
- My boss and I see eye to eye
I could go on, but I bet you get the point.
And, if you don’t get the point, or just like the people who are “immune to advertising”, you think that you are immune to this way of thinking…
…If you believe that you see through the ruthless capitalist attitude of corporations… And that you, of all people, would never succumb to such delusions… Because you think like an executive or an investor, not some plebe…
Well… I hate to break it to you… But perhaps you should reconsider your position.
The most important fact about these delusions is that they are not held consciously. In fact, in the conscious mind, most employees will speak platitudes about how “loyalty is dead” and “you have to look out for your best interest”. But… When push comes to shove, they still embody and act out the limiting beliefs I’ve outlined above.
This is because, ALL of these limiting beliefs are held in our subconscious mind. They got there as a side effect of the culture we grew up in, as we developed our sense of “work ethic”. And unless you were born into an elite family with generational wealth, and a career that you got groomed for, your subconscious mind too, will have the subservient work ethic programmed into it.
I cannot emphasize the size of the disconnect between this type of thinking and how corporations actually work… It’s colossal. Where do I begin?..
Owner Ethic vs. Servant Ethic
As far as the corporation is concerned, your loyalty is an asset that lowers your price and is desirable, despite the fact that it’s not in your best interest.
As far as the corporation is concerned, letting go of or outsourcing workers for cheaper alternatives is their job. It’s what they are meant to do.
As far as the corporation is concerned, it’s not loyalty but the creation and control of value that is the only way up.
As far as the corporation is concerned, you don’t exist. Only the value you create exists.
As far as the corporation is concerned, it owes you nothing beyond what you have the power to negotiate.
I can go on and on. But, instead of wasting our time, let me summarize it this way:
There is a massive rift between how corporations approach the employer-employee relationship, and how the typical employee approaches it. And that mismatch of expectations causes an insane level of frustration.
No wonder so many people dislike their jobs! In fact, according to Gallup, a whopping 30% of workers despise their jobs, hate their bosses, hate their co-workers, and actively undermine the work they do!
But the issue here isn’t that the corporation is “wrong” or “unethical” or “evil”.
The issue is, employees who have been thoroughly indoctrinated to be docile little sheep are entering a wolf’s den, and then getting upset and confused as to why they end up losing their hide!
They lose their hide, because they are doing it wrong. They went in as sheep instead of going in as wolves… Or at the very least, as sheep-dogs.
There is a better, much better way. And no, it’s not some Utopian revolution or some worker’s uprising. Far from it.
Graduating From The Servant To The Trader Ethic
The better way is to do all of this. We call it embracing the “trader’s paradigm”.
This better way is to recognize your value and protect the development of your career.
It is to get your work to automatically increase your paygrade and make you pursued by multiple employers.
Ultimately, it is to stop playing the game setup for serfs, and start playing the game of high-value professionals.
THAT is what developing career skills is actually all about. 80% of it happens in your mind, as you shift your assumptions and transition to better beliefs that serve you instead of HR.
And that is exactly why HR people hate what we do! After all – IT SAYS ON THEIR DEPARTMENT NAME – they want to treat you as a human resource, not as a high-value professional they have to cooperate and trade with.
Remember: Human beings are not resources. We are professionals who control how we construct our work relationships.
THAT is what we do at Career Insiders. But it has an important prerequisite:
The Prerequisite To Your Ascent
Let me explain by referencing another economist/philosopher…
Despite his many flaws, Karl Marx got one thing right: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.
Of course, in the modern world of business, we abhor and condemn all violence and the notion of a gun above is only used as an analogy. Part of the reason we have capitalism is so that those of us who are competitive and aggressive can duke it out in the marketplace rather than the battlefield.
That being said, Marx’s quote is an apt analogy…
Just as political power grows from the coercive ability of a gun to get people to do what you want them to do, even when they don’t want to… Career power grows from your ability to get your way, even when your employer doesn’t want you to.
You see… You can’t play the career game of the high-value professional if you only get stuff when your employer wants to give it to you. You have to learn how to get it, even when it’s inconvenient for the employer, and do it in a way without damaging the relationship.
And that requires power.
Never forget this fact. If you want to establish a high-value career, never underestimate the importance and necessity of having power.
And that power is developed through building leverage, as well as number of other key career skills including capturing attention, building reputation, getting hidden jobs, getting promoted faster than a reasonable pace, influencing peers, political savvy, positioning, escaping the box your boss is tasked to keep you in, and negotiating for as much money as you can possibly get, whenever you want to get it, rather than waiting for your annual review which is the only time corporations pretend you can ask for it (Hint: it’s not)!
The corporate game isn’t office politics, scheming, maneuvering and boot-licking that most people think it is. No wonder most people hate the corporate game or office politics!
Lucky for you, none of that is the corporate game. The corporate game is thinking outside the box, and turning the tables with the corporate world. And if you want to have a high-value career, you have to learn how to play it. Period.
There is no other way. You either toil or win. Your choice.
If you want to transition from being a human resource to a high-value professional, and upgrade your paygrade beyond reasonable expectations, you’ve come to the right place.
And if not, we hope that one day you will be.
Afterall, we are rooting for you…