As you can imagine, love is difficult when living an ocean apart.
So it was that in 1996, our dear friends were in just that position. She was living here in the “Land of the Free”, and her husband was living in Germany.
My two-step solution to their dilemma was simple… First, I would launch a company here that he was capable of leading, and second… I would make him an offer that he could not refuse.
Or so I thought.
Next, we did what we are free to do in America. We planned… we executed… and incorporated. And I wrote a formal letter to his superiors, detailing the terms of the employment offer.
Not so fast.
You see… he, like virtually everyone else there, had a contract that spelled out the circumstances of his resignation. As I understand it, these can have very different time considerations… but his was six months to the end of a quarter.
In this case, that meant eight months plus change.
Yikes… this clause was either going to be the deal breaker… or the marriage breaker. In the end, she moved back to Europe… and love triumphed again! Looking at pictures of their since-born daughter… it was the right call.
But it does provide a contrast in freedom.
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With few exceptions, on any given day in this country… you can DECIDE you are going to go into business on your own. Yes, you can begin spending the best hours of the best days of the best years of your life working for yourself, and the needs of your loved ones.
You can even do it on the side of your current situation and reduce your risks to virtually nothing. Yes, rights… privileges… and freedoms… all purchased with a price.
Sometimes with blood.
The original colonists who left Europe did so to escape oppression and tyranny, fighting the seas and disease along the way. Later, our nation’s citizens would endure years of painful wars with their former king… and their countrymen.
In fact… it would take many wars, including a civil war and several world wars, before we would begin to recognize the equality of every American. And still decades more before that doctrine would translate into some semblance of reality.
And all this pain… and all these tears… and all this blood was shed so that people could be free to get up every day and… complain about their jobs?!
I don’t think so.
No, we have the freedom to decide… we have the freedom to act. And we have the freedom to succeed… because we have the freedom to fail.
It is not a question of whether we are free… but rather, what we are choosing to do with that freedom. Happy Independence Day… I love this country, and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Takeaway:
Who is in the State House and the White House, is not nearly as important as who is leading in Your House.
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