By Lynn Abrams
We all know that many of our country’s good jobs have been automated or shipped overseas. We no longer have the luxury of expecting that someone else will have a job to offer us. Even if they do it’s probably at a big box store or other retail franchise that pays minimum wage, and that’s not enough to live on without government assistance. But if we’re willing to take a chance, we don’t have to accept that as the vision of our future.
So what can we do? Well if no one will give us a job we want, we can create jobs for ourselves. And that gives us the potential to create jobs for others, to bring the jobs back into our communities. What does that mean? It means we have to learn to become entrepreneurs, freelancers. We can all use our talents and skills to share goods and services that help create vibrant, self sustaining communities. Make buying local a realistic, affordable choice. Stop relying on people outside our communities to bring their businesses to us. Become business owners and hire our neighbors. Keep our money in our communities. We can Be the Job.
How can we make this happen? In Kansas City we have many resources including a Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, an Asian Chamber of Commerce, a Native American Chamber of Commerce,an LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the Mid-America Minority Supplier Development Council, the Small Business Administration, and the Kansas Small Business Development Center. All of these organizations have workshops, seminars and other programs that help people start their own businesses, and networking events that help people connect and build relationships that lead to opportunities and partnerships.
There are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who don’t even know anything is going on. We can choose to be the people who make things happen. We can make a difference. We can choose to Be The Job.
