I saw a story about UnderArmor's Kevin Plank this morning, so I thought I'd read a little more about him. Here's an article from Inc. -
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20031201/howididit.html Here's how it relates to the OWS movement:
I've always been a hustler. I don't mean that in the literal sense. When I was 14 or 15, my brother Scott, who works with me at Under Armour, came back from
Guatemala with a bunch of knitted bracelets you see at
Grateful Dead shows. Scott had this proposition for me and my brother Colin: "Listen, there's a Dead show coming to town. We'll go down and sell these bracelets and make a lot of money." We took the subway down. At noon, Scott said, "We'll meet back here in three hours." Later, we meet up. Colin--he's a writer, works for
Disney in
L.A. now--said, "I sold the first two. Then I started feeling guilty about how much money I was charging, so I gave the rest away." Scott, who's more of a finance guy, loves the
Wall Street thing, says, "I made about 70 bucks." I say, "I have about 580 bucks in my pocket. And I need more bracelets." Right there, I knew I was pretty good at this.
Colin is acting out the OWS motto and choosing to give it all back because he feels guilty for his capitalistic venture. Kevin went about with his passion, took chances, almost went bankrupt, and made his mark in the business world by filling a need. Funny thing....he didn't need ONE government handout/program/subsidy/tax break in order to become successful. I'll just bet Obama mentions him sometime....not as someone to be emulated, but as someone that needs punished with higher taxes, a higher Death Tax, and more regulations.
Which one, Colin or Kevin, is what America is all about? Which path should Americans follow...the guilt-ridden one wherein everyone should work for the collective good of all or the rugged individualistic one wherein the opportunity for rewards and risks are right there for everyone? Even if you don't want to write it here, you will have to choose a path less than a year from now in the voting booth.