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Life quote to summarize The seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized by Bylund
The Market, a Metaphor for Life
What keeps people up at night, the what if’s. The world is full of them and the market is the perfect place where what if’s can make or break someone’s reality. In the book “The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized,” Bylund states in chapter 5 that “change brings about change that in turn brings about changes.” I strongly agree with this statement as change is inevitable. Byland continues this chapter with an interesting, and very lengthy, analogy to a shopkeeper, a glazier, and a broken window (Bylund, 76). It was a journey through a perspective in which I never thought of. A broken window can lead to a purchase, but that purchase could have been placed on another product. Much like Bylund begins to explain, what if the window was never broken, then the money spent to replace the window could have been spent somewhere else and in turn, could have benefitted a different marketer rather than a glazier. From what I could gather from this chapter, was that entrepreneurship is based on the what if’s of the consumers. To me, this seems like a dangerous game to play. As Bylund states, “what we do not get is as important as what we do get.” Although he means it is a completely different context, I analyze this statement as then why should we worry about the what if’s. If we have such little time on this planet and spend most of our lives questioning “what if,” then are we really experiencing life at its fullest. We could go back and forth about the future and the past and yet nothing will change until the moment it does. I do understand the tactics in which entrepreneurs work however, I do have a “what if” the marketers controlled the “what if’s?” Instead of the consumer’s future needs being a guide to the entrepreneurs much like in Bylund’s example, what if the marketers directed the consumers down a part in which they could not control? Then again, this is just another “what if.”
A Questionable and Hard to Digest Statement…
Although chapter 5 is way lengthy in its use as a metaphor for value and “what if’s,” I stopped reading after chapter 7 due to, in my opinion, a disturbing remark made by Bylund. The statement is as follows: “This effectively shuts out less productive labor workers, for instance, immigrants and minorities or those without specific education or experience, as well as less productive employment opportunities, that is, unqualified jobs.” Take this as you will, I would love to hear feedback on your understanding of this quote. To give you some context surrounding this statement, it began with the idea that prohibition is such a tool that we use on employment to put a certain limit on wages for employees (Bylund, 111). I can understand where Bylund is coming from stating that if we had no “prohibition” on wages then the market itself could regulate the pay they give their employees, meaning that it would provide an opportunity to a broader range of people. However, the way that this sentence is worded baffled me. As a minority, I find lumping minorities into one category or “unproductive” is offending. As one of the top architecture students of my class, who has received a handful of awards with the AIA, I can proudly say that minorities are not “less productive” (Bylund, 112). I would also like to point out that allowing the market to control the wages would create an unfair wage gap between women, minorities, and also the general working-class population. I see this as a way to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Just because someone is receiving a higher check in their pocket every month, does not justify their work ethics, morals, or productivity. I have encountered many bosses who do nothing at work yet still get paid more. Now before I get called out for being a Bylund, I would like to say I have had bosses who have worked harder than I have and are very deserving of their pay, but much like I stated earlier, we cannot simply lump all people into one category.
Brutal Takeaway
In the end, I believe that some of the points and metaphors that were referenced by Bylund in this book were strong and there are some interesting perspectives however, I do believe that the wording without a doubt could be altered. The metaphors could be shortened and less dragged on. It felt as if I was Keanu Reaves in inception, but in a story of what-if scenarios.
I agree with you. This sentence is very poorly worded. I encourage you to bring this up during class discussion on Friday.
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