I am unsure how a woman who has never started a business, who is famous for being married to Bill Clinton and who has had a fairly undistinguished career as a public servant could be so wise about business matters, but I tip my hat to her. People scoffed when she dared to speak the truth earlier this week that: "Business does not create jobs." [sic] But I am a believer.
Fifteen years ago, I struck out on my own to start a business. It was not that I had to rent space, buy equipment, open a line of credit, work 15-20 hours per day to get it off the ground. It was not that I risked the well-being of my family and the future of my wife and my two high school aged kids. Nor was it the fact that I spent a lot of time on my knees praying for guidance because I believed I needed the help of Someone bigger than myself. It was not the sleepless nights worrying about my decision. It was not that I had no clients and that we had to rely on the savings we had accumulated--without any assurance that there would be any income in the short term. After doing all this, I realized something: there were no employees.
This bothered me greatly. I built the business, went into debt, worked hard every day, tried to recruit business and waited for employees that never came. "Why?" I asked myself. "Where are the employees?" I assumed that all my hard work, my business plan, my venture capital, my office space, my new equipment--all of it--would create jobs. But, alas, I was sadly mistaken. There were no jobs, no employees. I learned a painful fact: businesses do not create jobs. What was I missing?
Then, one evening I sat at my desk, alone with my thoughts--wondering if I had made a huge mistake. The hour was late and I was discouraged, ready to throw in the towel. "Where were the employees?" I asked myself again. "I have built this business (Obama's insistence: 'you didn't build that' notwithstanding) yet I have no employees. From whence shall they come?" I asked again. The answer escaped me. After all, I was so naïve as to assume that when you built a business, employees would follow; or, put simply: "Business creates jobs." After all, were there not thousands of small business like mine across the United States that generated millions of jobs? I was sure I read that somewhere. And if that were true, how then were the jobs created--if not for small businesses?
No sooner had I pondered these things, head in hands, anxious and alone--despairing of my future and that of my family that relied on me, when something happened that changed my life.
Suddenly, the darkness of my office was illuminated by a golden glow, in the midst of which flitted a tiny winged creature, with delicate features holding a tiny wand in her right hand. I say 'her' because she looked like a 'her.' Yet, because of her tiny pant suit it was a little hard to tell.
Startled by her appearance, I felt like Scrooge at the moment he first cast eyes on Marley.
"Who are you," I asked, "what are you?"
She spoke. "I am the Jobs Fairy," she replied in a soft voice, "and I am here to help you."
"Oh, thank goodness you are here," I replied, "is this how it happens?"
"Yes," she replied, "in this way you shall succeed. Not by the sweat of your brow; not by this business you have established, but merely by my good graces."
And without another word, the Jobs Fairy flew from one chair to the other, waving her magic wand over each empty desk, spreading a faint silver and gold glitter over each chair, after which, magically, there appeared four employees. And they are with me yet today-- thank God and the Jobs Fairy.
Before I could thank her, the Jobs Fairy disappeared into the night, never to be seen again.
And it happened just that way--proving that Hillary was right.
Now I sit here in the heretofore jobless business that I created--with four wonderful employees who all have jobs courtesy of the Jobs Fairy--so thankful for my good fortune.
How Hillary knew this, I will never know. But she alone knew the secret of the Jobs Fairy. As surely as there is a Jobs Fairy, we will have full employment in 2016 if she is elected President. For she understands.
“His newest book, The Wind and the Spirit (Stories of Faith and Inspiration)” was released in 2011 with all the author’s royalties go to support the Carmelite sisters.”
