Remember The American Dream Research Paper

Remember the “American Dream”?
My mother’s side of the family is from a small farm town in southeastern Kansas. Growing up they were very poor, and at one point resorted to hunting rabbits in the yard just to eat. The average American family would have reached out their palms to the government for handouts before the thought of hunting rabbits for dinner, but not my family. My grandfather is and always has been a very proud man. He would be the last one in line for any kind of assistance. He runs his own oil drilling business and is always at work a half hour before sunrise and returns only after everything has been completed, as well as being covered in oil, scrapes, and bruises. You could say that my grandpa is a very hard worker.
You could also say that his hard work has made him successful, due to him having all five of his children go to and finish college. This accomplishment is very rare where they live, but he was determined to give his children a much better life than what he had and taught them how to accomplish anything they wanted in life. He has always preached that hard work and determination is what drives individuals to success in life.
The world today drives me crazy.
It seems like everyone is always looking for short cuts, loopholes and ways to cheat their way ahead. The founding idea of being able to achieve whatever you dream of through working hard, also known as the American dream, has died off. Improvements in our technology mostly focus on decreasing the time we have to wait, and this has lead to a “now world”. Do not get me wrong, I love two day shipping and being able to download songs in a snap, but this is just adding to the problem. The “now” mindset has mislead people that they can literally get anything they want without working for it. One great example of this is the fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage protests. When you flip burgers for a living you can not expect to make more than minimum wage. Fifteen dollars an hour is more than what some paramedics make. If these fast food employees want to make more money, then they should either increase their level of education to get a higher paying job, or dedicate themselves to their work and make their way up the management ladder. There are countless stories of this happening, including my general manager at Legends Honda. He started as a simple detailer, and after a few years of dedicated hard work he is now the general manager of a car dealership at the age of thirty. “Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper (Proverbs
13:4).”
I believe that hard work can be defined into a code by which someone can choose to live by. It means getting out of bed to get to work or school on time every day. Not looking for what the bare minimum is that would be acceptable. Not making excuses. Going above and beyond what is asked of you. Always putting forth your best effort. Following this code obviously is not a requirement in life, but I believe that it leads to many other benefits. Some of these added benefits are self-improvement, added motivation, character building, new opportunities, attention is drawn to you, and most of all, the best results. People will do what they want, but it inspires me to do better just by typing out that list. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle” said by Abraham Lincoln.
Every day I wake up and try to accomplish something new that I have not done before. This allows me to make myself better than I was the last day. I always arrive to work fifteen minutes early, and while at work all that matters is getting everything complete. Texting friends, getting on social media, and checking scores can all wait. I am the lead auto detailer where I work, so customers’ happiness is my number one goal. This can easily be accomplished by not cutting any corners, hiding mistakes, or cheating them out of services. If someone came in and wanted to get scratches polished out, it could be easy to just throw some wax on it to fill in the smaller ones and just say that the larger ones would not come out. That goes against my beliefs and drives me crazy when I see someone try to pull that move. It may save two hours of work and still go home with the same amount of money, but that does not fly with me.