No Failure, No Success.

I’m so freaking sick of this bailout nonsense.  If companies are not allowed to fail in this country, then how are better ideas supposed to succeed?  From AIG, to forgiving your mortgage balance, to the big three auto companies… it seems like everyone is getting rewarded for failure.

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Those of you who stop by regularly know that I once owned a family mortgage business.  The writing was on the wall about a year ago this time, but we tried to make it work not knowing just how long the industry would suffer.  We cut down to nothing, lowered our expenses, lost our personal health care, and did everything we could to stay afloat.  I found a way to eat lunch for $2.14 a day, and if I could bring it cheaper than that I would.  I ate less at dinner just so I would have leftovers for the next day.  There I was with five years of payments left on my gas-guzzling SUV, picking up Burger King receipts off the ground for the coupon on back.  I did everything I could to limit the bad and keep from going belly up.  At home things were equally as tight.  We limited travel and virtually all discretionary expenses, got rid of cable, stopped buying soda and beer and snacks.  We sold some stuff and even rented a room to a family member.  We did anything we could to get by.

And that’s what you have to do.  Through all of it, we kept making our household payments (mortgage, cars, etc).  Our lights stayed on and the water kept flowing.  We found a way to make it work, and we were blessed.

Since then I’ve been given a reprieve of sorts.  My new businesses are growing, and I’ve found ways to grow them nimbly while keeping expenses low.  And if my new businesses fail to put food on the table and keep things paid… then I’ll do something else… because that’s what big boys do.

I do have sympathy for people who lose their jobs.  Believe me, I understand.  When things got tight, I was praying five times a day for the money to make my next mortgage payment.  I worked in the office during the day and at home on the computer at night, all the while applying for other jobs.  When you are laid off, you have no job and have to start over.  When you have to close your business, you have a no job and have to start over… but you also likely have rent payments, equipment leases and other burdens to take care of.  Its not easy… nor should it be.

But the reason most of us share a dream of striving for our own success is that we know what its like to fail or are deathly afraid of finding out.  The reason we understand the value of a dollar is that we know what its like to be broke, or how hard it is to get the next dollar versus how easy it is to watch them go.  Its not supposed to be easy.  But success would not be possible without the potential to fail.

If I didn’t have to close my business, what incentive would I have had to cut expenses, trim the fat or start something new?  If I was prevented from failing, I’d still be going deeper into debt, spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.  What good would that do for society?  What good would that do my family?

I’m sickened by what I hear and read.  I’ve complained before about people gaming the system to get a better mortgage.  Now even the mainstream press has caught on.  The San Fransisco Chronicle asked if you are an idiot if you keep making your payments.  No, I’m not an idiot, I just have integrity.

Maybe I’m the only one.

The graveyard of capitalism is littered with companies whose time was up.  Whether their ideas or their industries failed doesn’t matter… they weren’t able to adapt and change and now they are gone.  Why should today’s auto industry be any different?  Why is your home mortgage any different?  What kind of precident are we setting when we bail everyone out?  Is personal responsibility dead?  If so, what does that say about the American Dream?  What about our nation’s future?

What incentive does the next company have to do things better, or cheaper, or more efficient when the old guys are propped up and prevented from failing?  What incentive do you have to pay your mortgage when they guy down the street stopped only to be rewarded?  Why did my wife and I use our hard earned money to buy our interest rate down while there others who haven’t worked as hard are getting their rates lowered for free?

This bailout nonsense can not continue to go on.  Can’t people see its only getting worse?  I’m sorry if the auto companies fail, but you have to think management and the strangehold of unions was to blame.  I’m sorry if some other company fails… but its not the end of the world.

So what happens when you can’t pay your mortgage?  You lose your house.  That’s how it should be.  You are not a failure and you shouldn’t be ashamed, but you should grow up.  Take your licks, have some responsibility, and understand that free markets have to be allowed to work.  Remember when times were good?  Remember that dream of ultimate success?  None of it would be possible if you couldn’t fail.

Have too many people gotten into too much debt and failed to save?  Absolutely, and I’ll be the first to raise my hand.  And now I have to dig myself out.

Isn’t that what everyone should be doing?  Isn’t that the lesson we should send to our children?  Shouldn’t we suffer the effects of our excesses so we don’t repeat our own mistakes?  Or as a nation have we chosen that the goal of success isn’t important if failure is at risk?

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This nation would have never been formed had the founders been afraid to fail.  As a people how can we continue if there is no prospect of success?