I saw this interview on Breitbart’s BigGovernment site. While this young man seems personable enough, his description of what he wants at work both gave me the shivers and brought me to high dudgeon: he works at a restaurant chain called “Noodles,” and he feels “restricted” at work, not free. Poor baby, he is told when to report for work and what to cook. He wants workers to take control of their place of work. Lewis concedes: “If the owner wanted to cooperate with us as an equal and provide his skills that he had, we would definitely cooperate with him. He’d have to abdicate his position as owner and controller of us and he would have to recognize that we — we run Noodles together and if he doesn’t want to cooperate with us, he’s against us.” He is willing to grant the owner an equal seat at the table when determining how the restaurant should be run. He believes that the employees should have equal say in how the business should be run (providing the owner is willing to “cooperate” with them, otherwise the owner would be out in the cold), and that the risks, blood, sweat, and tears of the owner of the franchise should mean nothing.
From further down in the article:
Aaron Kennedy, the founder of Noodles, grew up on a farm with few to no connections to money. Like my friend Rob, Kennedy also studied at the University of Wisconsin. At 29, while eating at a Chinese restaurant, Kennedy had an idea, and scribbled his business plan on a napkin.
Scraping some money together from his friends and family and maxing out eight credit cards, Kennedy opened the first Noodles in his basement, and then put together a team with whom he’d build and operate 100 Noodles branches all on their own. It is now a $75 million franchise with 240 locations in 18 different states, providing jobs to over 3,000 employees just like Rob. This is what the American Dream looks like.
Under Lewis’ vision, however everything Kennedy has worked for would be taken away from him. The status he has earned for himself through his achievements would be reduced to that of one filling out an application for the very business he built from the ground up. Perhaps my imagination is limited, but I at the moment I cannot imagine a greater humiliation. This is what socialism looks like.
Mr. Lewis’ idea of how to run business was a chilling reflection of the scene from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. My copy is out on loan right now, so I cannot give the exact quote, but there was a passage where a very enlightened woman described how a vibrant, profitable business was run into the ground when the original owner died and the children took over. They turned over all the decisions to the employees, who were able to vote on how to run the business and how to split the profits. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for personal issues to crowd out viable economic decisions. While the enlightened daughter felt good about what she had done as owner of the business, giving the employees equal say, she was speaking while her father’s manufacturing plant sat idle, rusting away, and all of the employees had lost their jobs.
If Mr. Lewis and his ilk want to run a business, I suggest they start one of their own. When his own skin is in the game, perhaps he’ll feel differently about turning over his power to those who have not learned how to make a business work. Socialists believe that if you have money or own a business, you are (a) evil, (b) lucky, (c) privileged, (d) lazy, and/or (e) need to be taught a lesson. Perhaps they can learn about hard work, motivation, business smarts, and respect from some of these people:
My Hubby: Started working for a plumber at age 13. Worked his way through high school, then through college. Went to work for several other plumbers for several years before starting his own business with an old, beat-up van, some hand tools, and a borrowed sewer machine. Worked 12-18 hour days, in the heat and in the cold, gradually building up his equipment and occasionally getting screwed by unscrupulous customers and vendors. When his wife (me) came on board from her corporate job, the work hours continued on into the night – through lawsuits, financial setbacks, and successes. They took personal and financial risks and managed to raise two kids through this business. We know of others like us, whom I cannot mention due to privacy issues. We are not unique.
John Henry Heinz
Steve Jobs
Alonzo Decker
Fred Deluca
George Eastman
And many more.
I notice a common thread. None of these people had things handed to them, nor did they take their businesses from anyone else.
Mr. Lewis, you and your friends want to make the decisions and run a business? Build your own. You just need to get off your collective butts. Literally.
SSGT USMC (a long time ago)
Quit that job in pursuit of higher education. It was the best job that I have ever had and everything else has been 2nd best. It was the singular worst decision that I have ever made.
There is no job in this world that compares to being a NCO in the Marines.
Simple
I really liked your personal background story, Tedtam.
12-13 babysitting biz with my female cousin, hey it was money
13-16 convience store, Dairy Queen, Church’s, KFC
16-17 got my big show biz break-gas station attendent
17-18 apartment complex maintenance/lawns/pool
18 make ready-car dealership, heavy industrial engine mechanic
18-32 oil field rig manufacturer/service company- mechanic, shop foreman, service mgr
32-present construction equipment service, sales, rental
Public Union workers: My brother works with the HFD, he is more of a right wing nut job than me. Until it comes to his union. We don’t talk about it. My sister is a secretary in the local school district, same thing. She has to share a stapler with a co-worker because… *coff coff*…they are so strapped for funding.… Read more »
I couldn’t figure out how best to organize my job list because there was just too much detail. So I eliminated most of the “little bit of college here and there” and numerous short-term jobs. Also skipped age after 20 because my memory isn’t that good. 🙂 14-17 – babysitter 15 – egg collector at a chicken factory farm in… Read more »
#35 bobby In the second place, the story in your linkie is far from unique. DOMA and similar state laws disadvantage same sex couples in over a thousand different ways Which wouldn’t be the case with civil unions, which I believe would have little resistance. But that’s not what we talk about is it? We talk about same sex marriage.… Read more »
After?
🙂
Tomorrow is Texas Independence Day. Is it time for another Declaration of Independence?
It is now safe for Doood to go into outer space. With the space tourism industry preparing for take off as early as next year — Saber Astronautics Australia teamed up with the Four Pines Brewing Company to develop the very first beer that can be consumed safely in space. Jaron Mitchell, the founder of Four Pines, said the creation… Read more »
As far as screw-ups go, I have probably had way more than my share and with fewer negative consequences than I deserve. For example: getting clocked doing 119mph down I-10 and I managed to slow down from 136 before he saw me. I did not go to jail but was banned from the driver’s seat for a while. I have… Read more »
Yes indeed. They are truly the lifeblood of the economy as far as I’m concerned.
From Bob But to assume the potential “better condition” is to neglect the benefits of the lessons learned from those not-so-good decisions, or even good things that influenced you at the time. What counts is where you are and what you do today, and tomorrow. Various yesterdays all have one thing in common. They are gone, but remembered. I have… Read more »
Mr. Lewis’ idea of how to run business was a chilling reflection of the scene from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged I think that a closer link to today’s reality with stars, the glitteratti, the former popularity of PEEBO, the whole elitist thang, etc is revealed in Ms. Rands earlier book, The Fountainhead. Ellsworth Tooey comes to mind as the editorial… Read more »
1. Tool dispenser – When I was 6 yrs old, I would hand my Dad whatever tool he requested from underneath a washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, or oven. Dad owned his own appliance repair business. 2. Mowed lawns 3. Computer lab assistant 4. Mover 5. Exterminator 6. Assorted office gofer jobs 7. Manufacturing Engineer 8. Started a business from scratch… Read more »
87 watch that stuff, you’ll go blind.
86
Or maybe I’ll fool him and drink something colorless…..out of Mason jar. 🙂
He said glass. You can pour beer from a can into a glass (it actually tastes better; “better” being relative).
philistine
Oh, and for Katfish, crash in 1981. Used to be an inch taller.
16 Roofer
19 tire buster
some school
20 pipe drafting
21—–pipe drafter/preoject manager/estimator/VP. 33 years yesterday
#77 Bones, If I could have kept away from the EVIL WISSING PLANT I prolly would have a dual degree in mech/chem engineering. Maybe if it had been illegal, you wouldn’t have been able to obtain it. 😉 But seriously folks, when you look back on your life, as several of us have done here today, you are bound to… Read more »
As far back as I can remember, Farm Hand
15 TV Shop
19 Got out of tech school.
19 radar repairman/operator, Florida
20 Avionics technician, comuter ariline, Georgia.
24 OEM tech rep for Narco Avionics, Georgia/Kansas
28 Avionics technician, comuter ariline, Kansas
29 Avionics technician, FBO Hobby Airport.
31 NASA technician/manager to date.
#80 – Since WHEN did you start buying beer in bottles??
Dude
….but I will be raising the traditional glass at High Noon tomorrow for the big 175th birthday, along with Texans around the world. 🙂
Interesting job histories. Thanks for playing along. I’d give out lovely parting gifts but I ain’t got none.
I’ve held relatively few jobs compared to Doood. Much of my younger life was limited by transportation issues. I didn’t have a car until Hubby rebuilt a VW for me when I was 19. I was going to college on a full-ride scholarship that required full-time school attendance and good grades. It paid for everything, so I could focus on… Read more »
Pyro: Not a slow learner, I just could not have cared less about college, inside the class room that is. I got a degree in marketing from U of H, and what I learned there can be summed up as ‘find out what the customer wants and give it to him’, in the management section it was ‘don’t produce past… Read more »
I’m good with mid-90’s levels for everything except Defense.
Started at age 12 (hey it was a family business!) * Pest Control Technician Assistant * Licensed Pest Control Technician * Garage Door Assembler * Sales Person at Radio Shack * Welder (stick and MIG) * Pump System Assembler/Shop Foreman * Production Supervisor for Chemical Formulator * Government Relations Manager * Marketing Manager * Environmental Health & Safety Director *… Read more »
You’re obviously a racist. You said “dark, dark”. I know your codespeak well.
/
#66 –
HEH – Shannon can testify I was already like THIS decades before I took on that Dodge Ram and lost in Aug of 2000…………….
Pyro #70: How about an immediate cut back to 2006 levels of spending? The economy is shrinking, the population is relatively stable in numbers, why the WISS is the gov’t still growing? ALL THE STAFF INCREASES under peebo need to be erased.
Slow learner? 😉
Idiot Congressional Black Caucus members claim GOP-sponsored budget bill would: threaten to bring the U.S. back to a time when “America was not in her finest hour, a time when the poor, the rural and people of color were denied equal opportunities to education, healthcare, jobs with decent wages and protections, and the possibility of homeownership. We cannot and must… Read more »
about age 6 I had a lemonade stand with my best friend PFMIII. About 12 I started cutting lawns 15 washing dishes at the Holiday Inn which used to be on I-10 near Bunker Hill 16-18 various restaurant busboy jobs 17-18 grunt at a equipment rental store some college roustabout on offshore drilling platform some more college re-builder of oil… Read more »
#65 Katfish Konnection, ya might want to check out those pesky statutes of limitations before incriminating yourself too much. 😉
Start around age 13: Sold Christmas cards, garden seeds, vegetables from the garden, mowed lawns, shoveled snow. Carpenter’s helper Bus boy Dishwasher Shoe shine professional Military Portable building assembler Office manager for a Non-Profit Hardware store salesman BBQ Restaurant server/cook the next 35 years is taken up wiht being a Structural Steel Detailer, with about 8 years of that in… Read more »
So THAT’s what happened to you.
Houston Comical bicycle delivery dishwasher (age 12 – lied about my age to start at IHOP) cook kitchen mgr (by age 18 even) heavy equipment operator plumbing tech for polybutylene re-plumbing jobs drywall repair (included hang / tape / finish / texture) HEADON crash survivor (yes I was the guy on the motorcycle) freight broker primary contact for a BACA… Read more »
The State of New Hampshire is considering legislation to make: the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault. In this case, someone found in violation of the statue would be a “Tier III” sex offender, requiring lifetime registry with the state. Furthermore: the… Read more »
Started age 16 (apparently a late bloomer around here) 1. Mowed lawns 2. Tested gene sequencing chips (unpaid internship) 3. Computer repair store (basic repair duties) 4. Meat wrapper at Krogers 5. IT support guy/gopher/delivery guy for real estate management company 6. System technician 7. Pharmacy Tech Graduated College 8. High School teacher 9. sys admin 10. IT manager 11.… Read more »
I do understand Shannon. Jerry speaks for me: “What a loooong, strange trip it’s been…”
60 Dude
Yeah, pretty much.
Like the song says, I can’t stand the pain…
Heh! You sure about the retired part?
8^)
#54 Doooooooood, OK I’ll play. Here’s my resume, starting at age 13: 13-15: Hawked concessions in the stands at concerts and sporting events, earning 2 cents for each item I sold. The most financially lucrative events were college football games, where selling glasses of ice was prohibited by law, but “well appreciated,” and weekday Holiday on Ice performances. I’d ditch… Read more »
Oh and party animal (retired)
Start age 14
Cashier/stockboy at a fruit stand
Oil field roustabout/slave
Exhibit tech at a science museum
Geophysicist
System admin
Programmer
Computer hardware/software sales support
Realtime data processing system implementation
Inventory planner
Demand/production planner
Supply chain planning manager
Supply chain planner
I left out Ranch Hand
Age 13 start
Concession stand operator
Dish washer
Car washer
Hospital housekeeping
Meatcutter/manager
Retail plant nursery manager
Landscaping/nursery owner
Auction ring man
Welder
Water/wastewater utility manager
Freight Broker
Water utility manager (present)
And any others I’ve forgotten
I just had an idea. A stupid one perhaps, but an idea nonetheless. What were your jobs that you’ve held throughout your working life? Could be an interesting look at some of the characters that frequent the couch here. You kids at home play along if you’d like. I’ll go first: Starting at ~ age 13 1. Newspaper route delivery… Read more »
#39,
Agreed there too. But in all fairness I’ve run across some private sector dead wood who obviously missed their share of consequences.