Who Built It?

One of the catch phrases of the day has been on my mind lately - "You didn't build that."  "You built that."  :)  You probably know what I'm referring to and may be tired of all the talk.  I've got to say, I believe in hard work, responsibility, the importance of individual ambition and incentives that encourage innovation and the chance for every individual to pursue their dreams.  There is great satisfaction and much heartache in working hard to create something, and I think that work ethnic needs to be encouraged, but I don't think either of these statements are quite right.

I thought this was an interesting article in the the New York Times on this topic - The Credit Illusion.

I think there needs to be more humility in each response.  After all, all that we have and are comes from God.  I know that's not a popular political conversation of the day, but there's not much that we can do completely on our own.  We should be ready and willing to share the credit and build teams that work together for the common good.  It's not about us!  I think as a society, in general, we care too much about who gets the credit.  To reach solutions and find real success we need to care less about who gets the credit and more about doing the right thing and getting things done that will help others.  As Harry Truman said, "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."

In order for anything good to happen we need to be willing to take an individual initiative to get something done and humbly work with others to accomplish something meaningful - after all "if you build it they will come."  :)

I think this is another interesting article - Why Can't we Sell Charity like we Sell Perfume?  It's not totally related, but I think it's along a similar line.  How do we work together to build effective nonprofit organizations that will help to make difference for good?

Note:  If you're worried at all about my political statements here wait for my post coming soon of 12+ reasons for why I'm voting for Mitt Romney.  :)