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Category Archives: Business

Does America Deserve to be Outsourced?

As a software designer, I’ve had the pleasure of working with individuals from countries such as India, Romania, and the Philippines. Everyone has heard the stories of large corporations closing down their operations here in America and moving them to developing nations. After working with individuals living in these other nations, I am not surprised that their wealth is growing while ours is dwindling.

When I need help building a piece of software, I contact web designers in these developing nations. Development tasks that would cost $250 here in the States can be purchased for $40 or less. What I’ve always found amazing is the level of service I receive even with such a low purchase price. These individuals give their all to their work and they are grateful no matter what.

When I have work to be done, I send out a bid request and available designers contact me with their credentials and the dollar amount it will cost to have them do the work. One time, before sending out a request, I made a commitment to cut every bid amount in half and re-propose it to the bidder. I assumed I would receive a number of counter-offers somewhere between the two amounts and others telling me to go stick it. To my shock and amazement, every person agreed to the lower price with the simple attitude of “the customer is always right.” (After the winning bidder completed the work, I gave them a bonus for the other half of the original bid amount.)

A Difference of Nations

Why are jobs leaving the U.S. and being outsourced to developing nations? At first glance, it seems like a simple math problem. A business unit that costs $750,000 in the U.S. only costs $75,000 in India. If the lifeblood of a corporation is profit, reducing operating expenses is the driving force.

But look closer. How many people have you heard complain because they called technical support and had to speak with a “foreigner” that could hardly speak English? Many consumers avoid purchasing from companies who have outsourced their call centers and technical support. With these companies losing customers, and the correlated loss of revenue, there must be more to outsourcing. And there is.

In America, the general attitude of employees is entitlement. The majority feel they’re not being paid as much as they deserve, they have to work too hard, and that life simply isn’t fair to them. Compare that to the attitude of India where gratitude is expressed on a daily basis. They live in overcrowded homes, they eat food that most Americans wouldn’t touch, they ride the bus to work, they haven’t even thought of getting health insurance, and the average annual salary is around $7,500.

The toughest challenge facing business leaders today is finding and retaining good employees. Now imagine their predicament. They can have employees who complain about being underpaid and do the minimum amount of work to get by or they can have employees who thank them for every dollar they pay and go above and beyond the job requirements. They can pay managers to build morale and boost productivity or they can pay managers to train employees and then get out of the way and let those employees shine. The cost savings is only the icing on the cake. Having dedicated, grateful employees is much more useful to these companies in the long run.

Wealth Flows to Gratitude

What’s the difference? An attitude of gratitude. Most Americans feel entitled to their money, possessions, and relationships. The people in developing nations see any amount of money, any possessions, and every relationship as a gift. And because these things are gifts, they are grateful.

Gratitude attracts. Entitlement repels. It’s no wonder that jobs are leaving the U.S. to be outsourced to developing nations. The American attitude of entitlement is repelling the jobs while the foreign attitude of gratitude is attracting. The money is simply following the laws of the universe.

The Cycle

We’re in a time of leveling. Our advancements in technology have made it possible for work to be performed in faraway lands. Jobs will continue to be outsourced to developing nations whose pay rates will continue to rise as U.S. pay rates stay steady or fall. As jobs become plentiful overseas, life will follow the natural cycle. Plentiful jobs and good pay rates will become commonplace. Gratitude will fade and entitlement will take its place. Eventually, the economy of these nations will level out. The leveling is caused not from differences in pay but rather from differences in attitude. These developing nations will lose gratitude as they receive more and more, and America will gain gratitude as more is taken away. When these two forces are equal with each other, the economies of the nations will also be equal.

Adopting an Attitude of Gratitude

Entitlement feelings can creep in anywhere: money, experiences, relationships, health. Do you feel bored? That could be a feeling of entitlement to a life of fun and entertainment. Are you entitled to respect and support from your family? Or is every supportive relationship a gracious gift? Has an illness stolen time from you? Or do you appreciate every new day on this earth as an unearned gift?

Commonplace is the enemy of gratitude. We become accustomed to good-paying jobs, healthy living conditions, family and friends who love us, nice cars, big houses, time and availability for recreational activities, and access to knowledge and information. We have these things not only in our lives but in every life around us. We expect it. If your tire blew out on the interstate, would you be upset that you had to wait for roadside assistance and that you would be an hour late to work? Or would you be thankful that you have a cell phone, something you would not have had 15 years ago, and didn’t have to hitch a ride to the nearest payphone or service station. Notice how easy it is to take for granted something as useful as a cell phone. Now go back and remember the thoughts of joy, excitement, and gratitude you felt when you purchased your first cell phone many years ago.

What else are you entitled to? What else has become commonplace? What would life be like without air conditioning? Or television? How about doorknobs, lights, cars, coffee, computers, batteries, paint, wood, concrete, enriched flour, Taco Bell, oxygen, mountains, or stars? At one point, these things didn’t exist. They came into being and, if anyone was around, they were appreciated. Then they become commonplace. Now we feel entitled to looking up into the night sky to see stars shining and we also expect the night to fade when we go back inside and flip the light switch. It’s commonplace. We expect it. We’re no longer grateful for these gifts.

Personal Growth

It’s time to adopt an attitude of gratitude. Drop the phrases “I’ve earned” and “I deserve” from your vocabulary. Replace them with “I allow” or “I receive.” That’s all you can do. Believing that you’ve earned or that you deserve anything is ignorance. The world owes you nothing. Even ideals such as freedom and justice are gifts. The universe guarantees nothing.

Allowing and receiving is all you can do. You haven’t earned that $90k salary, but you allow it into your life. You thank the universe for it and open yourself to receiving more. You don’t deserve that beautiful and supportive family but you receive them openly and give whatever you can. You are grateful.

Take every opportunity to be thankful for what is. Allow the universe to deliver to you the desires of your heart. Give to the universe without expectation of reward or reciprocity and open your heart to allow in whatever it is the universe brings back to you. That is gratitude.

External Articles

  • Steve Pavlina: Gratitude
  • Universe of Success: Gratitude versus Entitlement

    • Your First Business

    In an excellent article (cached version) in Business 2.0 Magazine, Erick Schonfeld gives 5 ways to start a company while keeping your current job. As a one-time entrepreneur, I wish I had heeded advice such as this.

    If you are sans-entrepreneur (you’ve got the fire but you’re still waiting for the right time), I highly recommend starting and running your business as much as possible while holding a steady paycheck. From my experience, these are the reasons why.

    Owning a business isn’t the American dream. It’s often a nightmare. Go re-read the statistics on how many businesses fail in how short a time. Now read it again without the “I’m different, I’m going to conquer the world” mentality. When starting your first business, you have no clue what you are doing. Have a backup. Whether that’s a spouse’s paycheck or you burn the midnight oil while keeping a day-job, you need to maintain financial stability.

    The true American dream is owning a business that allows you to do work you love and earn a decent paycheck. We’ve all heard stories about IT managers who quit their job to start a doggy day care, or flip houses, or whatever. If they’re doing it because that is what they love, great! But too many people hold the notion that owning any business is better than being an employee. That’s simply not true.

    At your job, you have a title and your activities tend to have a specific focus, whether it’s programmer, accountant, receptionist, or janitor. You address BS in your narrow field of vision and you allow the other folks to address the other BS. When you own a business you are responsible for all the BS. I know, I know, that doesn’t sound so bad now but wait until that large sale you need falls through at the last minute and now you have to layoff most of your employees. That is BS you can’t delegate. You can’t hide from the hard times you cause for your ex-employees and their families.

    Research the type of business you are considering. Look at other businesses in that field. The salary you’d make as a manager in one of those businesses is about the most you’ll be able to pay yourself. Set your expectations correctly. If you are starting this venture because you believe you’ll get rich quick, don’t do it. Go find some statistics about entrepreneurs and bankruptcy. Realize that putting the same amount of hard work into your employee-based job and being diligent with your finances will often yield similar results.

    You can never be fully prepared to run your first business. You simply don’t know what you don’t know.  Jump in, have fun, be prepared to get beat up, and when you wake up one day and realize you are not doing what you love, cut your losses and move on.  The boat you are supposed to be on is just over the horizon.

    The Free World

    Have you noticed? The world is becoming free. Sure, prices at the fuel pump don’t make it seem that way, but forget about traditional commodities for a moment. We live in a new era, the information era, and we are knowledge workers. As knowledge workers, the tools we use to accomplish our work are becoming free.

    Three years ago I wrote a scheduling application for my computer repair service. For any new appointment, the application would calculate the drive to and from that appointment to every other appointment on the company’s calendar. It would rank the available appointments according to their cost to the business (i.e., miles or travel time). Thirty-minute drives would appear at the top of the list, followed by days without any appointments, and then drive times over 30 minutes. The advantage to our business was that we could give our customers a precise appointment time instead of the typical “between 1:00 and 5:00.” This provided better service for our customers and helped keep our schedules filled to the maximum.

    At that time, there was no software available that would calculate and schedule all available times like this. To determine drive time, I queried the MapQuest.com server with the starting and ending addresses and parsed the HTML response. The actual drive time would appear between the “Total Est. Time:” tag and the “minutes” tag.

    As a small startup, this was my best option. Sure, mapping packages were available that would provide me a better interface but they were pricey. In fact, I couldn’t even get MapQuest’s sales department to respond to my request for information about their available packages. On the other hand, my solution was elegant, relatively fast, and the code only broke when MapQuest changed their page layout (which was about once a year.)

    In March, MapQuest deployed their free web service API which provides this routing service and much, much more. Now, with a simple registration, any developer can write an application to interface with these mapping services.

    This is the new web, what many refer to as Web 2.0, and MapQuest is far from being the first to implement such visionary services. They’ve simply joined the ranks of numerous others including Amazon, eBay, and Google.

    These companies are changing the meaning of knowledge work. Special tools that were only available to larger organizations willing to spend the money are now available to everyone, absolutely free. These free services join the ranks of other causes, such as free operating systems, free word processing, and free picture development.

    The world is becoming free. More and more of the technologies that drive our existence are being offered to the world for no charge. Companies are becoming smaller because free translates to less revenue. Companies using these new and innovative services need fewer employees. In general, more is getting done with less.

    What does this mean for us? What does the future look like? It’s exciting to imagine a future in which every tool needed by the knowledge worker is free of charge and is simply downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. But how do we make money? How will companies that offer free products make revenue?

    It’s a strange and exciting era we live in. I’ll let time answer the question of how to make it work. Until then, I hope Shell catches the spirit and offers free fuel for all.

    Seek Failure

    Many people are constantly looking for the perfect job. I know I’ve tried. My first job was a dream. I worked with talented individuals, our boss had created an excellent team, and he did a fine job fending off outside threats. We were able to learn and grow all while accomplishing wonderful things and making a profit for the company.

    After a couple years, politics over-powered the team. My boss resigned and each of the team members followed suit. From that point on, I’ve always been looking for a job that will exceed my expectations like that first one. However, I have consistently moved further and further from the goal.

    My jobs have grown consistently worse (or my expectations have grown consistently higher.) Each job is worse than the former, each boss, each business model progressively worse. I keep thinking, “how can I find that perfect job, how can I get back to where I was ten years ago.”

    Then it hit me. Each job is seemingly worse because I am learning, growing, and expanding my knowledge. If I could have stayed in the perfect job, I would actually know very little about running a successful business. It’s only being in a situation where things are done wrong that the past experience becomes recognized as ideal. It’s not possible to pro-actively create that positive environment unless I’ve identified and solved the various roadblocks that get in the way.

    I say, seek failure. Continually look for the worst company, the worst boss, the worst team you can find. It’s only once you’ve found it that you’ll be challenged enough to grow significantly beyond your current limits and achieve your true potential. Face it, we only read the self help book when we need help. We only read about budgets when we’re up to our eyeballs in debt; we only read about making relationships work when we’re on the brink of divorce; we only read about improving business processes when our company is on the path to bankruptcy.

    Seek failure. Find the place that is most in need of improvement, learn what can be done to make it better, and give it a go. What’s the worst that can happen? If you fail, a bad business remains a bad business. That doesn’t seem like such a tragedy. If you succeed you might just become someones hero and you’ll learn a lot more along the way. Don’t stagnate in the perfect job. Seek failure today!