I’m busy working on my 101 Alternatives to a Real Job book.  Two days ago I was on the phone with someone and I said something like this:

“We are so busy chasing our career dreams (meaning: the traditional job) that we are giving up the American Dream.”

I thought that was profound, especially as the elements of the career dream has changed so much in the last decade.  Before, it meant steady, secure, pension, benefits, safety.  Today it doesn’t have much more meaning than what you might get as an unattached contractor.

The American Dream, though… ah, the images that conjures up!  Hope, freedom, prosperity, reward for ideas or work… have we lost sight of this American Dream?

Before all the American Dream haters come out, I’m not saying that big corporate greed, or small corporate greed, is part of the American Dream.  I’m saying that a chance to earn a reward, whether it’s on your one acre farm, or on your family’s 20k acre property, is yours for the taking.

The American Dream is not about “what I was born with, so I’m limited,” it’s about opportunity for everyone, if they only want it and work for it.