Johnny Cash and the Marlboro Man
This is excerpted from a December 2011 e-mail newsletter…
If such an area exists in on the west side of Indianapolis, Andico Road is the industrial hub of Hendricks County. The Complex (home of PANKO Strength & Speed to the ill-informed) is right in the middle. There are seven factories and/or machine shops, two excavators, and three garages. The other half of the Complex is storage for one of the plastics factories and is the setting of this encounter.
Monday marked second confrontation I have ever had with scrappers – scavengers who dig through trash to find metal so they can turn it in for some (emphasis on some) cash. Just about any stereotypical rodent analogy can be drawn to describe these two. They had the appearance one would expect – sharp, narrow, rat-like features. They were listening to Johnny Cash (no shame there) and they were smoking Marlboro reds.
I happened to walk outside as they were making their way towards the open door of the storage unit next door. They asked if there was anything in there they could have and I said “no.” They asked if I was the owner and I said I was not. His next reply was to ask me, “Who are you to say we can’t have anything?” I responded that I was a business owner and my business was my livelihood, and if someone attempted to steal my livelihood I would defend it until somebody was carried away on a gurney. I told him it was inconceivable he was attempting to subsidize his livelihood by stealing cast dyes from a business owner who carried the burden of providing for every single employee, and their family, on his payroll. The two got in the car and left.
Wealth, well-being, and success can’t morally be attained by taking from others. It can be earned, it HAS to be earned. But success can never be stolen. Success should not be measured on an inter-personal scale. Success is intra-personal. It’s not person to person, but it is within. Success should be measured on small scales, whereupon, an individual makes sure they are taking small, progressed steps forward daily. Putting their head on a pillow better than when they woke that morning
This vulture believed he could steal (“from someone who could afford it”) and achieve some sort of wealth, success, or happiness. When in reality, he will never be successful because he is always going to place blame on someone else. He won’t take steps forward because he will always be concerned those around him will be taking greater steps forward. He will be diving in dumpsters and sorting through people’s trash until he is put in the ground because he was never given a “fair shot.” Unfortunately too many share his opinions. Success comes at a price, but it’s not someone else’s price, it is the individual’s price to pay, and it is paid with sacrifice, persistence, blood, sweat, and, sometimes, tears.
