^{Machine Shop Tips} Why Do They Keep Calling Us Losers?

I, like many of you, work very hard to be innovative and progress in my career and my company. Hours are spent reading and exploring new ideas to implement and take it to that next level. Many sacrifices are made in order to do this. In reality, same as you, I take this very seriously. Every once in a while I come across literature and opinions that make me want to set the rest of my receding hairline on fire.

These comments come from government agencies and supposed educated people that for lack of a better word call us “losers”. They believe that us and our companies are unable to compete in the global market place when it comes to manufacturing. I don’t know where they get these opinions but they really upset me. Are they looking at the person at the desk beside them when they say these things? Are they leading a sheltered life that does not have anything to do with the reality of what is actually going on with people like us or do they just listen to their local and national news networks that show them statistics?

I am upset because once again within the last week I came across an economic report that made my blood pressure go beyond where medication could help. It said that there were no signs of entrepreneurial zest in Canada. Really? Where do they get the information that leads them to say this? You and I, who are in the real working world, are making sacrifices on a daily basis to be globally competitive and are making major inroads with our organizations. To us this economic report is mind blowing in its implications. Are we a bunch of misguided fools or are they? What great insight do these people have to be able to say such a remark?

The problem is that I have heard these types of negative statements before. Many of them can be found online as well as in publications. I have read that instructors in educational institutions have swayed young people away from getting into manufacturing fields. They say since we cannot compete on a global basis. Manufacturing is dead in North America. For this reason a career in manufacturing has no future. How do they know this? Who is responsible for spreading these misconceptions? As a matter of fact the reason we can’t compete is not because we couldn’t get our people to take a massive wage cut or because out tax system is too high, it’s because we refused to invest in our organizations and ourselves. We choose to send manufacturing offshore because it’s simpler and believed to be cheaper. But that is not everyone. Many companies and people have been able to invest in themselves and have become very successful. The negative statements mentioned before seem to come from people who do not really do their research to find out what is going on in the real world.

I, for one, am tired of being judged and commented about by people who do not even know what the industry is really doing. They make generalized statements and don’t share how they came up with these remarks. Many of these people who make such remarks are in respected positions of authority and because of these statements heavily influence society they go against everything that you and I are working for. The entrepreneurial zest has been there all the time and continues on. It would be really nice and very helpful if people would stop making comments that are so negative.