Breaking even or breaking bad: is your business the American Dream?
19 August 2014 by Catherine Holdsworth in Business and finance, Entertainment
The legend of the American Dream can be traced back as early as the first Europeans to settle the continent, recounting how they stepped off the Mayflower and started a new life in the Brave New World. The American Dream is what drove Europeans to board ships and make the perilous journey across the Atlantic in search of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Since the advent of the twentieth century, however, the American Dream has tended to represent the pursuit of wealth and capital, as portrayed in such classics as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. America, more than any other country represents capitalism through its large corporations, and companies aiming to stake their claim in the market.
The American Dream in the twenty-first century is promoted as something achievable by all, as TV shows, advertising and reams of self-help articles urge Americans forward, with the promise of wealth, success and happiness if only they strive hard enough. In the TV series Breaking Bad, Walter White’s small but successful business grew into an empire, spiralling dangerously out of control. In the beginning, Walt had clear financial goals: to pay his medical bills and ensure his family’s financial stability after his death. However, with his stock growing at an exponential rate, Walt’s greed and desire for more cost him dearly.
It’s all very well to have millions in the bank and a yacht to holiday on but the danger of this is that one loses touch with reality. The advantage of a small business is that it’s easier to stay true to the ethos of what made the company successful and maintain excellent customer relations – key to the longevity of a business. In an age where word-of-mouth is as good a recommendation as any, and reputations can be destroyed with a tweet, it is essential that small businesses maintain their integrity.
Take, for example, Amazon, a ‘Fat Cat’ company that creates trouble for even moderately sized companies, such as Hachette. With the companies reaching a stalemate, their disagreement has had a knock-on effect on customers, who are now unable to buy books by the publisher on Amazon’s site. There are parallels between Amazon’s relatively swift rise from small bookseller to world-beating supplier of everything, and the success of Walt and Jesse’s meth business. First the Breaking Bad entrepreneurs made other dealers and suppliers redundant by supplying a better product and better service – Amazon built its business on great service and the best prices. Moving into bigger premises with an effective distribution model brought Walt and Jesse wealth but also enemies; once Walt and Jesse were ‘on the map’, they were hunted, not just by the police, but by rival dealers, desperate for blood. Amazon is still loved by customers, but from the other end of the supply chain there are many who despise its approach to business and would be glad to see the company brought low. Whether their dreams come true remains to be seen but if you do find yourself at the helm of a successful business you’d be wise to remember that reputation is all-important.
Essentially, Walt is a product of his environment. In a country reliant for its survival on commerce and the pursuit of wealth, Walt was faced with thousands of dollars worth of debt due to a low income and expensive health care; he would not have been in such a predicament had he lived in Canada or the UK. Thus his entrepreneurial spirit was ignited and he had no choice but to make quick and easy money. Nevertheless, as many small businesses have found out, quick money is not necessarily the key to a flourishing business and in that cut-throat, boom or bust world, burning out is a real risk. Though Amazon is a leader in the field of selling anything, offering a virtual department store at you fingertips, there is a growing backlash against the company with some consumers going out of their way to buy their products from somewhere else. Whatever the American Dream means to you, make sure you business is not compromised.
