Connecting dots and making history

Steve Jobs observed that with life “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” He’s most certainly right. Very few people can claim a career or personal narrative that is clear and direct. We are defined and shaped by our life experiences along the way — however random, awkward, painful or positive. Of course, this is the time of year that many accomplished people share their professional and business stories with those just starting their own. That has me looking back, leaning forward and enjoying a few new books.

This year, we celebrate the semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. That makes This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S History, the latest book by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage, timely, informative and worthwhile. Gage starts in Pennsylvania and ends in California, stopping in such iconic places as Disneyland, Colonial Williamsburg, Los Alamos and Mount Rushmore, placing them in geographic and historical context. Her telling is clear-eyed and unblinking and with each museum, monument and site visit during her 13 trips, Gage balances fun and current facts against a fraught national history that includes slavery, the Trail of Tears, the Civil War and the inequalities of the last Gilded Age. Readers will come to appreciate that many of our nation’s enduring challenges share deep and stubborn historical roots. A shared understanding of our complex story, especially given blue and red political maps, remains the best hope for solving our problems together. 

Indeed, despite its long history of partisanship and division, America remains a land of new beginnings and bright futures. That’s why this year’s commencement season features many well-known entrepreneurs from the Forbes 400 list of the nation’s richest people. What’s worth noting is that this list and those people are vastly outnumbered by rich private business owners holding at least $5 million in net worth, according to professors Owen Zidar and Eric Swick, authors of the  forthcoming book The Everywhere Millionaire. America now is home to some 5 million "Main Street Millionaires," centered often between the coasts and operating private and often unglamorous businesses, including car dealerships, restaurants, liquor stores, physician and dental practices, specialty manufacturers, and real estate firms.  Collectively, these hardworking business owners, many from poor, blue-collar, or immigrant backgrounds, now hold and wield tremendous power and influence at the federal, state and local levels, often protecting and expanding tax breaks and supporting regulation that stifles potential competition. How we ensure that our next generation can achieve the same upward mobility is a critical question for us all.

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We already know these are challenging times for new beginnings. This is a sad, familiar story. The path to a prosperous and productive life in America is long, winding, and elusive for far too many. It requires resilience, grit and hard-won luck. It also requires grounded self-knowledge and the courage that comes with it, according to journalist and commencement speaker Jody Kantor, author of the incisive concise new book: How To Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work. No one lives a truly happy, fulfilling life if they actually hate their life’s work. Kantor urges new workers to seek satisfaction as part of any start. All too often, Kantor observes, we surrender the possibility of joy as a reward for a paycheck. Days become weeks, and weeks become years, and as time is lost, we are lost too. Uncertain times present incalculable risks and unique opportunities for young people just starting out. For their sake and ours, I hope they read Kantor’s book.

History reflects our collective and individual stories.  For some 250 years, Americans have been most inspired by narratives that transform adversity into courage, prosperity, and a commitment to the ideals of freedom, dignity, and pursuit of happiness.  For our newest graduates, knowing history and recognizing possibility will be essential for what comes next.

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Larry Gennari is a business lawyer and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival. Watch recent interviews with authors here. Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.