Personal Responsibility and Action

Two authors came to my attention recently. The first author gave a straight story on personal responsibility. The other author gave specifics on how to go about carrying out one’s responsibility for one’s self relative to career building. I wanted to share their thoughts with you.

While testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on 5 June 2012, Brookings Institution (https://www.brookings.edu) Senior Fellow Ron Haskins (https://www.brookings.edu/people/ron-haskins/) said the following:

I want to emphasize the importance of individual initiative in reducing poverty and promoting economic success. Young people can virtually assure that they and their families will avoid poverty if they follow three elementary rules for success.

1. complete at least a high-school education
2. work full time
3. wait until age 21 before getting married, only then have a baby

Based on an analysis of census data, people who follow all three of these rules had only a 2% chance of being in poverty and a 72% chance of joining the middle class (defined as above $55,000 in 2010 [assume 3.5% inflation per year, see chart]).

These numbers were almost precisely reversed for people who violated all three rules, elevating their chance of being poor to 77% and reducing their chance of making the middle class to 4%.

Individual effort and good decisions about the big events in life are more important than government programs. Call it blaming the victim if you like, but decisions made by individuals are paramount in the fight to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in America. The nation’s struggle to expand opportunity will continue to be an uphill battle if young people do not learn to make better decisions about their future.

Dr. Haskins certainly lays it on the line. The statistics he quotes speak for themselves.

Lagena Bradley (https://topline.com/people/dr-lagena-bradley-297130025), while a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services (https://www.mdrs.ms.gov), gave clear guidance on seeking a career as part of one’s efforts at economic progress:

• Find out what you love to do

• Develop the necessary talents and skills for carrying out your passion

• Develop a career plan and implement it

• Seek guidance and counseling to help you with the career-development process

Dr. Bradley goes further as she digs down to a deeper level:

• Develop and implement realistic career plans

o make connections o move toward your goals
o look for opportunities for self-discovery
o take decisive action

• Develop and maintain a positive view of yourself, and confidence in your strengths and abilities

o nurture a positive view of yourself
o maintain a hopeful outlook
o take care of your physical & mental health

• Develop awareness of and the ability to manage strong feelings and impulses

o keep things in perspective
o accept that change is part of living
o think through decisions before acting on them

One would do well to take what Dr Haskins and Dr Bradley say to heart. What they summarize is very true according to objective statistics, and also according to my own personal observations and experience.