The Secret of My Success

Last Friday, President Barack Obama made the following statement while speaking in Virginia:

"If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

Did the federal government make your small business a success? Or did you?

As the owner of a small photography business, I was shocked and mortified that any elected official in the United States of America would make such a grossly ignorant, condescending statement. “I didn’t build my business?”  “Somebody else made that happen?” For these words to have been uttered by the president during an election year is stunning. To suggest that small businesses, the backbone of the U.S. economy, are successful only because of the federal government is insulting and inexcusable. If there was any doubt that the president is a socialist, those thoughts have been erased.

According to the Small Business Administration, firms with less than 20 employees account for 90 percent of U.S. companies and 97 percent of job growth. Small businesses hire almost half of the highly skilled workers (think engineers, computer programmers, etc.) and generate 13 times the patents per employee than large firms. And it’s no surprise that in a 2012 National Federation of Independent Business survey, the top three issues given as “the single most important problem for small businesses” were 1) poor sales (22%), 2) government regulations and red tape (21%), and 3) taxes (21%).

I’m proud of the small successes I’ve achieved. I got where I am because friends saw talent in me and encouraged me. I’ve found success because of initiative, innovation, and creativity. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve enjoyed success in spite of the federal government.

President Obama’s words are particularly insulting to me because of what I perceive as his hypocrisy. As best I can tell from examining his work history, Obama’s only private employment during his adult life was as a civil rights attorney in Chicago. He’s never manufactured a product (aside from his book). He’s never risked his own capital on a business venture. He’s never had to staff a company. He’s never created a private job. But he seeks through unabashed class warfare, to vilify those who have.

And for the record, despite President Obama’s misconceptions, the Internet was created by the U.S. Department of Defense, purely for military purposes. Not for job creation. And not by Al Gore.