The other day I had to pick up a registered letter that I had to sign for.  It was intriguing because it said the letter was from "The Netherlands" so I had to know exactly what required my signature since I didn't recall ordering anything from such a place.

I had to go to this hole-in-the-wall post office way off the beaten path and ring a bell...then wait on this lonely barren shipping dock.  The whole process of getting ones mail requiring signature has always been kind of odd, as this wouldn't be the first time I'd been to this place.

A man came out and demanded my driver's license with one word:  "License!"

"You need my license?" I asked.

"Yes.  License!"

I thought the way he was speaking to me was weird in kind of a "warlock who lives in a cave" fashion with one word demands.  No complete sentences.  Not even a fraction of a sentence.  Just one word here and there, in kind of a pissed off tone.

I gave him my license, half believing I'd never see my driver's license or him ever again.  But he came back with a letter and some card I had to fill out.  He continued with his demands.  "Print.  Sign."  And he'd aggressively point to the areas where I was supposed to print and sign.

This is when I realized that he had a very heavy accent of some kind, seemingly from some overlooked corner of the European continent.  But the bottom line, for me, was this:  The dude BARELY speaks English.  Barely.  And I doubted he could even order a hamburger from McDonald's...that's how poor his English is.  I've met people who were vacationing from Europe who could communicate better with a paper dictionary of English words than I was able to communicate with this grubby guy at the USPS.

This instantly made me angry, all within a fraction of a second.  Here we are -- a nation of people buying into the fear that the "foreigners" are taking American jobs -- and I'm standing at a government-founded organization where I'm battling to communicate with a USPS employee who can't freaking speak English (not to mention completely lacking in interpersonal communication skills).  Why couldn't the USPS hire an English-speaking AMERICAN for this job?  And why is it that every time I go to just about ANY branch of the USPS, I find myself struggling to communicate with many of the people who work there, even those who work at the counter?

Why is this?  What the hell is going on here??

But then, of course, this is when I had to gently remind myself that this is just how it is when you live in a hypocritical society.  The government expects one thing of its own citizens, including small business owners, but will do something completely different to benefit themselves.  Meanwhile, the Average Joe Blow will get mad at the small business owner for not hiring American-born people to work for them while completely ignoring the massive workforce of foreigners who work for the U.S. Government in one department or another.  After all, most people don't realize but the U.S. Government and all of their different departments are responsible for roughly HALF of the ENTIRE WORKFORCE in the United States.  So...focusing on the small business guy who has to higher foreigners to pick strawberries because Americans won't do it...and then getting angry at him...is kind of a futile use of getting angry.

But when things like this happen, I always have to REMIND MYSELF that I am responsible for MY OWN FINANCIAL DESTINY.  I can't be worried about who is working for who and why companies aren't hiring more Americans vs. foreigners.  In fact, when it comes right down to it, I recommend that people work for themselves.

And this comes just in time for the holiday tomorrow and how you should honor that day for WORKING FOR YOURSELF and NOT working for somebody else.

So, there's something I want you to check out RIGHT NOW.  CLICK HERE to find out what it is.

See you at the top!

Your mentor,

Monica Main