Success Comes Before Work Only In The Dictionary

By: D. A. Slinkard

We have a lot of entitled people living in our societies. Sometimes entitled people live in the same house as we do; sometimes those people are known as spouses. I can confidently say that my wife, Mindy, is far from an entitled individual; but I would like to point out that we have a bunch of people amongst us who think they are entitled to anything and everything they want in life. No rhyme or reason to why they should be entitled other than the subtle answer of “just because.”

This article is dedicated to all of the parents out there. We just had Mother’s Day not too long ago and Father’s Day is right around the corner; so, maybe this message will be appropriately found. First things first, if you are a male and you have produced an offspring, you have a responsibility. There should be no questions asked. If you have created life in this world, you should “man-up” and take responsibility for your behavior. The Bible tells us the man is to be the leader of the home; the man is to set the example for how the household should work. This creates a sense of order of how things are supposed to be. Our society does not have that sense of order, and a failure of order becomes chaos.

It saddens me how this societal chaos has forced many people to grow up in this world without a daddy, without a mommy, and sometimes without both. Our society has changed so much in the way we do things, the way we interact, the way we communicate. We have lost our moral compass when it comes to the family. We have many families in which the family dynamic is all out of whack, and this creates a sort of confusion that can cause a generation to crumble.

For us to continue to live in the greatest country known to man, we must make some changes to the way we live our lives. I recently was speaking to an individual about why they left their previous employer, and the one thing I kept hearing was a sense of entitlement. This person felt betrayed because they had been with their company longer than anyone else, and someone who had only been with the company for 16 months was promoted before this individual was. It was at this time that I realized the mentality of the individual I was speaking with is the exact same mentality that is becoming the norm of society.

What will life be like when we ultimately live in a society comprised entirely of those people with the mindset of entitlement? What will the greatest nation known to man look like then? What will it take to keep our society from crumbling beneath itself? We must change our mentality and the way we approach our daily lives if we are to continue to thrive as a nation. What has become our greatest asset, technology, has also become our greatest demise. My daughters will never know what it is like to have to listen to the radio to figure out what the lyrics are to that song stuck in their head. Nope, all they have to do is say, “Hey Alexa, what’s the name of that song with the words…,” and the answer magically appears.

Let’s go ahead and look at the way our society functions in the proper perspective. We live in a world that teaches us that we should treat everyone equally; we should give out participation trophies for just showing up; we do not want to offend anyone; we want to lie to people because we might hurt their feelings; and people should be entitled to get what they want because we are the United States of America.

We must drop the word of entitlement from our vocabulary and focus in on working our tails off to provide a better future for ourselves. The only place “Success” comes before “Work” is in the dictionary, and we must get back to the values of who we once were as a society. Our advancements in technology are further creating a generation who wants their cake and their ice cream and they want it right now. There is no longer a mentality of waiting to achieve your success. If we cannot get what we want right now, we simply move on; and this mentality will cause our society to crumble if not properly dealt with.
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard is the manager of the Athens Staples store