When Passion and Practicality Must Work Together

I have been starting and operating businesses for about two decades now. I am experienced, so believe me when I tell you that the current confluence of a global pandemic, the upcoming election, and the dramatic shift in public perception is….complicated. The solutions people are calling for are not going to be simple to achieve. 

I have been listening to protesters, concerned citizens, and angry voters and the one message I am hearing loud and clear is that we need change – large, systemic change. People are screaming for a new administration, global healthcare, more stimulus, and a re-invented law enforcement system, all while vilifying businesses. I understand the frustration. In some cases, I feel it too, but I also feel a growing fear that the changes that people want to see the most desperately may not be entirely possible. At least, they are not possible on the timeline that is being demanded.

Here is the thing. When a goal is as large as reinventing the police, the goal you set out to achieve is almost never the outcome you wind up with. Along the way, challenges will arise, barriers will present themselves, and circumstances will change. I spoke about this in my piece Abandoning the Plans That Do Not Serve You. In my experience, the people who are successful are the ones who are willing and able to adjust plans quickly, but are also the ones who understand that real and lasting progress takes time.

Reinventing the police is not going to be quick or easy. As analogy, let’s pretend that as a society we decide that we do not like surgeons and decide to get rid of them. That decision does not eliminate the need for surgery. As a solution, someone suggests having nurses handle it. This solution might be viable, but nurses will not be ready to perform surgery the moment the need arises. They will need years of dedicated training and preparation. They can be capable, but they will need to become qualified. That qualification process will be lengthy. The same principles can be applied to the Defund The Police movement. I worry that the passion for the movement is going to overshadow practical planning and considerations for adjustments that may need to happen along the way.

Similarly, the vilification of business is concerning to me. The money in this nation flows through a simple equation. The government collects revenue from taxing both businesses and the people who work for those businesses. If businesses fail, the tax flow stops. Right as people become more reliant on the government, the government has no cash flow. If business regulation gets out of control, companies will disband and go elsewhere. This is not to say that there is no room for improvement in our current tax model, but I caution you to consider that small iterations of change will ultimately be more successful. Giant and immediate reform is not practical.

In order to create lasting and effective changes within our nation, a strong foundation must be built first. Progress is going to take time. There is no silver bullet, but change can happen. It does happen. Our nation wouldn’t exist without a handful of visionaries who worked hard towards an innovative goal…but as a society we need to understand that progress takes time, and that our goals may have to evolve along the way.