Today's Lesson Courtesy of Orange County Choppers: Sr. vs. Jr.

I occasionally watch “American Chopper” and have since it first aired. Most people who watch the show clearly see that Paul Sr. is a raving narcissist. Of course being a narcissist means Sr. will never see that truth about himself. Even if it comes down to Sr. vs. world he will adamantly declare that the world is at fault. It’s really hard to work for a narcissist and it’s harder to have one for a parent. Combining the two would be a living hell. Even if a narcissistic parent loves his child he will always love himself more. If he has to choose between his own success and his son’s he’ll promote himself and sabotage his son. There is no reasoning with a narcissist if their ego is at stake.

The tide of public opinion flows in Paul Jr.’s favor. However, he is often called spoiled and his work ethic is criticized. Viewers can see that Sr. is an old-school iron worker and Jr. is a creative designer. What Jr.’s critics can’t seem to put together is that creative types don’t approach work like builder types. They work best with a lot of freedom but they require a project deadline and a budget. It’s not a matter of right and wrong. If a job requires 40 hours to complete it doesn’t matter if that work is done at 8 a.m., 3 p.m. or midnight as long as deadline is met within budget.

Many old school builder types take pride in rising early, getting to work early, being “on time,” etc. They’ll put in their hours and their overtime as necessary but they are also the ones who insist on lunch at noon and insist it's time to go home at 6 p.m. because they've already worked "late."

It seems that many people have a myopic and archaic view of what it means to have a good work ethic. They seem to believe that hard work equals success. I suspect people cling to this view because it makes them feel in control and gives them hope for moving up in the world. I hate to kill the Easter Bunny for you but that’s just your indoctrination speaking. Your keepers want you to work hard. It profits them and distracts you. Most people who work hard will never be successful in the mold of the American ideal.

When I lived in Baton Rouge I interviewed a man I worked with for an employee newsletter. He was a fifty-something African American. He was married with children. He had not one, not two, but three jobs. Three. And this wasn’t a temporary thing. Two of the jobs were full time and one was part time. He had worked this way for decades. He told me he worked all day (as a forklift operator in a warehouse) then went home for dinner then left again and worked the second full-time job at night. He also had a job on Saturday. To say he worked hard is a gross understatement. I respect him because he was taking care of his family; but from outward appearances most would not call him a success. (White people who think racism is not an ongoing issue have their heads up their asses.) Can you be a success if you have to sell 100 hours a week of your life to simply survive? Can you be a success when you rarely see your children; or worse, have a bad relationship with them? Sr.?

As a homeschooling mother I can also attest that one could work themselves into an early grave and still have to declare bankruptcy along the way. The moral highway is not a lucrative path.

It’s far more important to work smart and treat people with respect than it is to work hard. Working hard (unless you are working for yourself) is spending your life as someone else’s beast of burden. It’s basic business 101. Business owners don’t start a business to make their employees money. They start a business to make themselves money and they need and profit upon the time and effort of their employees. Employees are like machines. Your value is mathematical. How much money do you make the company? The company wants to keep as much of that money as possible and pay you as little as they can get away with. You know that right? So if you make a company $100 per hour and they are willing to pay you $15 per hour how hard should you work? Ethically you should do the work you were hired to do and do it well but should you work harder? Should you push yourself to make the company $150 per hour and then ask for a raise and get $16 per hour? This is turning into an I.Q. test. Yea, this is why companies choose to get cheap labor overseas. It’s NEVER been about the worker. It’s always been about the profit. I’m continually astounded by people who don’t understand this and ask “but what about the American worker?”

Back to OCC, Jr. has the creative brain to assemble a team of talented friends and build the kind of bikes that put OCC on the map and do this on any schedule that is most conducive to their success. Sr. can show up early every day, be a hard ass, drive a team of brown nosers who pretend to toe the “hard work” line yet never build another bike anyone wants to buy. With every new shit bike they finish we get to watch Sr. barrel down the highway of failure for a test drive.

True success today relies more upon creativity, talent, skill, knowledge, an enormous amount of luck and courage rather than the work ethics of the industrial age. Giving the finger to corporate America is usually required. A successful person has freedom in their work; and if they are a parent they have a good relationship with their children. If you're a multi-millionaire and your kids won't talk to you then you are an embarassing failure.

I guess TLC will continue to document the crash and burn of OCC because, hey, it’s good for profit and it distracts us. Hopefully Paul Jr. will rise from the ashes.