Why We Should Always Want More

The thing that gives our society its energy, excitement, and constant change is the fact that we're a people who are never satisfied with what we've got. And that's good!

Societies that become satisfied and content with what they've got tend to stagnate. You can see this in the United States by comparing certain parts of the country and different cities and towns. The people in them tend to want and expect their financial security to come from government programs. They're not interested in new ideas. Instead, they're suspicious and often hostile to anyone who tries to tell them that they alone are responsible for their own destiny.

These cities and towns right within our own borders, remind me of those foreign countries that have slowed to a standstill because of their socialist policies, but these places are in the minority. Most areas, towns and cities in this country are not content. They're building and growing because that's what the people in them are doing.

What gives this country its vitality is that our people want more. They want to earn more money, do more things, see more places, have more things, play more, do more and be more. When they move, it's usually because they want more room, more property, a bigger house with more rooms and a bigger garage for more cars.

In the Industrial Age it was often the case that because a parent didn't have a college education but had a good and secure job that he or she wouldn't encourage his or her child to do so either, but now that we are in the Information Age we know that our kids have to get more and more education to succeed.

There are those who deplore this drive to have more, but I'm not one of them. You're either growing or you're dying you can't stand still even if you want to. We want more and better products and services, more and more customers, more schools, more teachers. This is the history of man and wherever this spirit has slowed down and stopped, stagnation and rot have set in.

So don't feel guilty if you want more than you've got. It's the natural state of growing, moving and producing human beings, but watch out for complacency. When you stop trying to come up with better ideas, better ways of doing your job and living your life, chances are you've reached your greatest growth and have started going backwards.

As the Italian Author and Philosopher Guissepe Mazzini once wrote, “The moral law of the universe is progress. Every generation that passes idly over the earth without adding to that progress remains uninscribed upon the register of humanity, and the succeeding generation tramples its ashes as dust.”

So, what do you want? Now is a good time to start going after it, to start progressing toward that dream in your heart. It is human to want, to progress, to achieve, to improve, to win. The great writer and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson brought out this point best when he wrote, “Progress is the activity of today and the assurance of tomorrow.”

A person who is always improving and doing whatever it takes to get better is guaranteed to become a success in whatever he or she sets out to do, but on the other hand a person who is constantly stagnating and never tries to become bettter will always be a failure; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.