WHINING AND ENTITLEMENT
I love it when readers feed me stuff. A reader this week sent me a post from a fellow Virginia farmer titled "family farmers aren't the answer." Written by Chris at Sylvanaqua Farms, the post developed a narrative that individual family farmers can't feed the world and can't really make it as farmers. They need to form co-ops so somebody else can do the accounting, marketing, distribution, etc.
Normally I would not call out this farmer by name, but as I read his posts, he mentioned Polyface Farm and had egregious errors, like saying we only get 100 cow-days when we actually get 400 cow-days per acre.
The problem with disagreeing with Chris is that I'll be called a racist. That's unfortunate. Is it more racist to play the race card to anybody who dares disagree with you than it is to actually be a racist? I'm bringing this up because all races need to understand that when you use that term, it shuts down all communication. So I'm going out on a limb here in saying anything negative about someone who is not white. For non-whites to assume the default "racist!" accusation fits most circumstances is to stall forward progress. Period.
Now, to the substance. The idea that entrepreneurs, as individuals and families, cannot be successful is to fall prey to a victimhood mentality. Chris has been farming for what, 6 years? My goodness, Teresa and I weren't sure we'd even be able to make until we were about 5 years in. If I'd posted all my musings regarding our struggles, insecurity, and discouragement in those early years I'd have been both wrong and prejudicial.
If you want to do something, do it. And if you attack it with a positive spirit and upbeat attitude, you'll attract people who want to partner with you, both formally and informally. While Polyface is not a legal business entity co-op, over the years we've attracted a team that has strengths where I'm weak. To whine that "nobody wants to work with me" because you feel lonely simply pushes would-be team players away. Who wants to work with a whiner who has a chip on his shoulder?
If you really believe in something, you don't need affirmation from others. You don't need pats on the head. You just buckle down and do it, happily, gratefully, graciously, humbly. Plenty of ways exist to bring on team players that can do things you don't like to do or are not good it. To say that a whole has to exist before a piece of it can exist is simply casting blame on the world for your struggles.
While I'm a huge believer in collaboration and building community, I'm equally excited about individual leadership and entrepreneurship. The two are not mutually exclusive; they are indeed mutually beneficial. But usually community coalesces around individual leadership. Community does not spring up spontaneously; it requires pioneers. It requires someone to leave the fort first, maybe take some arrows, lead into the frontier. Others will follow, but an independent streak is paramount to making the first path.
I love young people and spend most of my time with them. But if there is a single glaring weakness among them, it's this dependency on something or someone else before they can move. If Google doesn't affirm it, or if the teacher doesn't agree, or if their friends don't buy in, or if the smartphone doesn't endorse--name your dependency--then it's not okay. If you can't go as a group, you don't go. That's incredibly disempowering.
When I think of William Cody mounting a U.S. Postal Service Pony Express horse at the age of 13 and riding through paths lined with hostile Native Americans, I wonder where he is today. Fortunately, he's here; rare, but here. Not the norm, but I'm sure glad some are still here.
What have you done on your own against most advice that turned out to be a good thing?