Holding Good Ideas

Unless you start from within a container of opportunity, and with capital, finding an income has to be the point of departure. The reality is that there are not enough jobs available. “Full Employment” is the situation where there is no one willing and able to work, who cannot find it because no one wants, needs, or can afford their labour. That is what wealthy countries (the containers in which we manage work and government and social security) aim for. 

South Africa has structural Great Depression levels of unemployment. US unemployment rose to 23% in the 1930s. South Africa's unemployment rate reached 33% in 2021. The lowest it has been since 1994 was briefly 22% in 2008. 

“You have to be creative” is the standard hollow advice, but I am very aware that I have never been an entrepreneur. I took the formal route. I did formal in-demand qualifications and I got one of the scarce jobs. That is how I built my engine. The reality is an engine allows you the freedom to think creatively. When I needed to top up and repair my engine, it became obvious that entrepreneurship (without a big cushion) is not my skillset. I would need to adjust my skills or accommodate different ways of finding an income. 

Good ideas are not enough. Not every good idea is a good business idea. Good business ideas exist within structured containers with sustainable capital. 

Once you do have an income, you are in a fortunate position to take on the challenge of spending less than you earn. To build capital. To build a container. To hold your good ideas.

United States Unemployment

Somebody Else

In my job hunting I have had many conversations with friends, former colleagues, recruitment agents, and friendly strangers on LinkedIn. Covid means I have not done the coffee circuit. I probably saw more people in week-long visits to Cape Town than I have seen in the (just more than a) month I have been properly back. Conversations move slowly. Even when there is an obvious vacancy. Corporates have to go through the process of advertising jobs, screening candidates, and rounds of interviews. I am doing the same in reverse. There are periods of silence. There are forms to fill in. People who do not turn up for calls. Sometimes repeatedly. I am still of the view that a job is a bigger deal for the candidate than the company. Someone will fill the role and the company will carry on doing its thing. As Tim Minchin says in a love song to his wife, “If I didn’t have you… I really think I would have somebody else.” For the candidate, it feels like more of a big deal. How you are going to spend a big chunk of your time. Where? With who? Tim’s point probably still holds true if you do not connect too deeply to any single opportunity. Push on with a little yogic detachment. It matters, but it does not define you.

If I didn't have you

Decision Maker with Money

My first job after university was in Risk Product Development. My focus area was Earning Ability. Money is made by solving problems for decision-makers with money. In a hand-to-mouth economy, without capital-backed decision-making, you only get to make decisions on how to spend money if you have earned it from another decision-maker. First, you have to find a job. Then you have to do a job. Then you gradually get breathing space if you get paid more than you need to spend. When you venture into the land of discretionary (by choice) spending. Then you can either consume that money or put it to work. To start, you are at risk. Unless you have someone to turn to, there is the danger that something goes wrong, and you cannot work. Something goes wrong, and you cannot do your daily tasks. Something goes wrong, and you cannot do the work you were trained to do. Or you cannot do any work. The question “How much capital would I need if I couldn’t work?” is the starting point for the target size of the Engine you need to make your own decisions. Until then, something might go wrong.

Three-Horsepower Engine

On the Menu

I am chatting to a few companies in my job hunt. Like dating, if you do that while employed, it feels dirty. The company I work for has one employee. Me. And currently no clients, other than people reading my free writing. My 2,800 blog posts over 6 years earned me $23.59 (and you need to reach $60 to get paid). So, it is okay. The context shift of coming back to South Africa after 12 years, means it provides an opportunity to get to understand what is going on here on the ground. My head and heart never left, because of Social Media and working for/with companies with South African links while away. My feet did, and it does feel different. Like buying cupboard items when shopping, rather than hand-to-mouth eating. The gaping hole in my “build capital” mantra is that I am not an entrepreneur. I did not make jobs. I took on-the-menu jobs, and reinvested the gap between my pay and my needs. I studied a degree knowing the salary and demand for the jobs that required that. Old Mutual paid for my studies. The most prominent emotion I have is gratitude. You cannot build capital without a job, and South Africa does not have enough jobs. But I am confident it will have one for me. Not all good ideas are good business ideas. Not all people willing to work can find work.

Savoy Hotel Menu

Cairo 1900

Hand to Mouth

Some common ground between anti-capitalists (labour should get all the reward) and anti-welfare (work ethic/ safety nets make people lazy) is a romanticising of work. Work for work’s sake. This commits us to hand to mouth living. Hand to mouth living commits us to cycles of booms and bust when our hands aren’t sufficient. Hand to mouth living commits us to hunger when there is not enough work. If you think of work as problem solving, then presumably you want the problem to be solved. We shouldn’t be afraid of technological advances solving problems, or increases in supply of people able to solve the problem making it cheaper to solve. We shouldn’t build borders that keep problem solvers out. We shouldn’t want to create fake problems just to keep people busy so we can pay them with “dignity”. We should welcome the spread of knowledge. This can only come if we turn everyone into owners. With Capital that moves from solved problem to new or harder problems. Work isn’t just a way of keeping us busy. The last thing we should be killing is time.