I got this from my good friend @dentT in an email (I did not write the letter I’ve republished nor was it credited in the email I received). I could not agree more!

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I’m sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don’t see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn’t have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business — hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70′s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden — the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations… You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I’ve made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It’s quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

If you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about….

Signed,

Your boss  

Those who add value and work hard are the ones left standing right now. Note I said work hard, because adding value and creating perceived value or value built on a house of cards (read vehicles such as and the like) are not the same. 

Let the American core competency of innovation breathe again and allow capitalism to right the ship. This means that things fail, that people have to redefine what their value proposition is (in many cases have to actually get one). Do not squeeze those who have built the framework on which everything(one) else stands.

O ya, and read Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.

Can we please get over the myth of the welfare queen driving a Cadillac waiting on her welfare check? Seriously. Those boogie women were used by Reagan for years to divide us. In the end there were no welfare queens. Such imagery is very powerful, but not very indicative.

If there are any welfare queens, there are certainly just as many – if not more – welfare king businessmen getting their multi-million dollar businesses subsidized by the government through tax incentives (think taxpayer money going to buy a big new stadium in which you’ll also overpay for tickets and drink $8 plastic cups of beer). YaY capitalism! One more $5 hot dog please!

While a fair tax environment is essential to business investment, this kind of claptrap is destined to be on Snopes some day. I’ll remind you that unchecked “capitalism” was what got our ship half underwater in the first place. This letter smells like an attempt to undercut the current administration given it’s language. We can advocate for business without demonizing one another. In the end we are all in the same ship businessm and and humble worker alike.

You can do better Nick.

Regardless of the politics of the article and the issues touched on in the latter part, this is an exceptional read. What strikes me most is the message of bootstrapping, hard work, and dedication. This is something our country has gotten away from, and something which is more crucial than ever in today’s environment.

It’s quite a read. Thanks for sharing, Nick.

Eric – To me, the letter doesn’t focus on the welfare queens as much as it points out the hardworking entrepreneurs who have built their companies and are currently already giving away much, without being helped – in fact may be hurt more. I advocate for the entrepreneurs – the strong private businesses, not the corrupt corporate structures that plague our newscasts.

My contention – you don’t like prices? Don’t pay them. Prices will continue to rise until our consumer culture fights back. Much like our higher education system – until a generation enters the workforce out of high-school (assuming jobs are available), the prices will continue to skyrocket. You’ll pay it? I’ll charge it.

What say you of the tax incentives for creating jobs, for developing scalable technology that betters the quality of life, for going green, for building plants and invigorating local economies? Not all tax incentives line pockets and that stadium will create revenue, tax INCOME.

I republished a letter which I felt had many valid points and many points with which myself and my colleagues identify. I am not so suspect as to assume an administrative undercut. I have much faith in our country’s potential to foster an aggressive and innovative business climate which is beneficial to owners and employees alike, but our “working population” has become lazy and feels entitled. Hard work and value are the core – President Obama said so himself in his inauguration speech.

In short, I can do better left to my own devices and given the opportunity to do so.

The guy makes some good points, but makes them rather poorly. He’s pretty condescending and even accusatory to his employees. He doesn’t seem to think that anyone who works for him is a valuable contributor or one who cares about the success of the company – they all “mentally check out at noon.”

He really should fire them all and hire people who can help him. But then if he promotes a culture of fear and of “my company” instead of “our success” he’ll never find employees that can help him.

But who knows? Maybe his employees were being jerks and they started it.

The plot line of removing yourself from a society that punishes the value creators so they remove themselves and start anew is that of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Good book, read it if you haven’t as it does have ties to America today.

I liked the letter because I am a strong believer in startups, hard/smart work, and getting ahead with my efforts rather than just getting by on others backs.

Thanks for sharing the email Nick!

Yes, and while you’re in your parents’ basement reading Atlas Shrugged, don’t forget the classic “The Moon is a Hash Mistress”, too.

The closest society to the libertarian paradises portrayed in those books is modern-day Somalia, where the state has eroded to almost the point of no return. I’m sure he’d be very comfortable there.

I don’t really want to point out all the things in this society that this “self-made” man depended on…let alone asking how much business his company did with the government.

Mike, you and I work for the same company. Go to our salesforce system and take a look at how much we depend on public entities for our business. We would be out of business. So would every single one the start ups I’ve ever worked for.

We all work hard, including the folks this guy insults and blindly stereotypes in his letter. I wouldn’t want to work for him. I’m sure he doesn’t know the day-to-day struggles of the folks he depends on to do business every day.

That said, if you want to read a complex story about the struggle for economic and political freedom, read “The Dispossessed” by Ursula LeGuin. It’s a much better read, with real human characters in real human situations. Better than the puerile trash Ayn Rand wrote.

I call shenanigans. This guy’s looking at the economy from a purely egotistical point of view, and is completely ignoring the fact that all those people who “drove fancy cars” and so forth were stimulating the economy themselves. He has no concept of relative value- for example, 20% taxes on a 50K income for a family of 4 means the difference between bread and Ramen, while 50% of 500K means the difference between a Lexus and a Porsche. And on top of all that, he’s effectively casting the message as a Me vs. You: If you’re not at his level, if you’re not a job creator and if you didn’t sacrifice as much as he did then you’re less of a person, meaning he absolves himself of any guilt on the lives he’d be ruining when he takes his dissatisfaction with the new populist political agenda out on his employees. This is a classic example of a Classhole.

Fact is, the true entrepreneur doesn’t just generate economic value- he does so ethically and in full understanding and support of the community in which he does business. Hard work does not come at the expense of social ethics.

Agree with Dave on the overall adversarial tone of the piece toward workers. My guess is we’ll never know anything specific about the company or the business because it’s entirely fictional.

I totally agree with you Nick in terms of the strong entrepreneurial advocacy. I happen to be one of those guys who is in the process of building a business. We’re on the same page there. I scoff at the us/them nature of making any point about the growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The piece appears to be an anti-tax, anti-government screed more than any advocacy of bootstrapping hard working entrepreneurs. One can view taxes as investments just as much as they an stealing (the author of the letter’s characterization).

My point is we can do both. We can value the business while valuing the worker. It’s easy to oversimplify and I think this letter is an example of that. Again, we can’t have a full and open debate because we have no idea what the specific circumstances of this business are – or even if it’s real.

I don’t discount your publishing of it at all. If anything it sparked good discussion. I did think it needed a more critical look at some of the more troubling aspects of the language and tone and thought I’d provide that. Hopefully that’s OK too.

The sooner we get rid of us/them in both politics and business the better. Business owners and workers are both responsible to step up to the table on this one. We can do our part as observers and commentators not to use the hasty generalization.

I say to this author (while rephrasing Nick’s sentiment which I almost totally agree with),

You don’t like higher taxes? Don’t pay them.

How about getting back to some *real old* fundamentals of this country?

The author sounds like some kind of passive-aggressive sissy, not a captain of industry. Doesn’t it sound like he’s threatening to have to fire them if they don’t go out and riot for lower business taxes?

Yes taxes are going to go up. Yes some dead wood needs to be pruned.

I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.

i am a big fan of Atlas Shrugged but kind of come down in the middle on this one.

The accusatory and threatening tone the writer uses with his employees is bothersome. Its obviously an emotional rant, not exactly textbook leadership. There are probably better ways of explaining the situation to the employees and possibly engendering their help in the process.

From a macro viewpoint however, i continue to be very concerned about governmental taxation and regulation taking away the incentives to found and grow businesses. entrepreneurship is really our (U.S.) only competitive advantage these days in the global marketplace, having lost labor, scale, and science leadership long ago.

This is also a case where mobility works against as a country. Technology makes it possible for the entrepreneur to set up shop in the most “business friendly” country. This presents a huge opportunity to ANY country of ANY size to declare itself that country and act accordingly.

New Zealand anyone?

I think you have to be careful reading too much in to the tone of this guy’s letter to his employees. I think the letter is a literary tool he uses as a vehicle to deliver his message.

I think he’s also over-generalizing and making sweeping accusations to demonstrate that the truth lies somewhere in between, and that over-generalizing and accusing your boss or your employees of wrong-doing is never helpful.

Instead, the take-a-way from the letter should be to check yourself. Every day. Nick hits it on the head, what is your value proposition? What do you offer the company? How are you building personal success so that you can share it with those around you? You can sit back and bitch about what’s wrong, or you can get to work affecting change; your call.

Typical conservative propaganda email that gets sent around in order to make a group of people who think they can do no wrong, are being oppressed in some manner. It is filled with vast generalizations in order to stir up anger. I guess after reading this someone should write a letter about all the people who are running businesses because of who they know or who their parents are, rand not because of hard work or abilities. Or maybe a letter should be written to the CEOs and executives of Wall Street and banks who are the major cause of the current economic issues and the ones benefiting from the government handouts. Hell, if this letter ever came down from the owner of a company I worked my ass off at, I’d quit on the spot.

Great read. While the pull up by the bootstraps model doesn’t always work, the truth is that taxes kill business and business is the heart of America. The USA used to have some of the lowest corporate taxes in the world. Now we have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.