The American Dream 2.0: Reboot edition.
How I came to peace with my youth wild dreams of being someone.
The term the American Dream refers to life “fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.”
More than just the pursuit of material success and a promise of opportunity, the American Dream is an aspiration to a way of life that enables all individuals to strive for and reach their fullest potential. This idea of self-fulfillment has propelled the United States as a beacon of progress, with America often serving as an oasis where people from around the world come in search of greater opportunities, freedom, and prosperity. It’s a grand dream that has remained doable over time.
The American Dream is also a global hope. All around the world, people dream of its attainability and how they can succeed with determination and hard work. But there was more to the definition: it’s a dream of social order in which any person can attain the fullest stature they are innately capable of and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth.
You know me as a Frenchman living in America who wants to help others regain control over their identity and ambition, to move from robotic, toilful careers to the freedom and success I found. With similar intentions to those of my compatriot, the Marquis de Lafayette in 1776, I am determined to guide and inspire those who want to take charge of their lives and create something different for themselves.
Working for 25+ years in the tech industry has taught me valuable life lessons on how to achieve holistic, life-balanced success. By sharing my stories and advice, I hope to provide material for strategies that can lead to more intentionality in the realization of your true American Dream.
In recent decades, the American Dream is also associated with national disillusionment. There’s ample evidence that upward economic mobility has declined, and income inequality has risen in the United States. A 2020 poll showed that fewer adults now believe in the attainability of the American Dream for themselves and that the younger generations are less likely to believe in the ideal than their older counterparts. The shift appears to indicate that pursuing personal success instead of being part of something greater can be damaging for those who remain too focused on their unattainable dreams, at the expense of personal authenticity or fulfillment. It can then become an unhealthy pursuit, where many get lost and cannot live up to their own fantasy expectations. And I am not alone in questioning this shift in the American Dream. In the book “Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream”, Alissa Quart covers other aspects of this shift. Mostly the unrealistic narrative of the old version of the American Dream anchoring us down in a pre-set societal class system. If you haven’t, you should read it as I will probably talk a lot about it in the future.
So in order to move forward and redefine the American Dream 2.0, I am asking you to comment on the below questions:
· How did we deviate from the greatest American promise to the strongest threat and yoke of our best well-being?
· What led us to such a pit that the dichotomy of a phrase like "a workaholic lawyer who seems to be living the American dream" does not shock us awake?
In 1996, just 25 years old, I arrived in the USA (Texas) with lofty aspirations and ambitions for my inaugural job in the tech industry. As someone with a knack for problem-solving, strategic planning, foresight, and being proactive, I was sure Silicon Valley would help me to reach my potential.
But my journey to becoming a top technology executive turned out differently than I had envisioned. After sometimes tripping several times over the same stone, I discovered that the Silicon Valleys and the Wall Streets of the world are not built by lone rangers but by driven teams with diverse backgrounds and perspectives working together. Primarily working behind the scenes, unrecognized, and often denied their rightful credit, these teams make all the difference.
This discovery led me to develop the four “magic ‘I’s:” Invention, Innovation, Integration, and Imitation. Exploring each “I” alongside complementary concepts, in The Delivery Man, I offer practical suggestions with thoughts on leadership, teams, and entrepreneurship, reminding leaders to avoid noise and keep focused. My work history illustrates the importance of learning “what you are good at as soon as possible in your career and accepting it even if it may not lead to your original dream.”
The Delivery Man is my story embodying the invisible crowd who delivers services, products, and experiences for the Big Shot. It’s a recollection of the experiences that led me to develop my truest professional strength, my best worth, and inner peace. I want to ensure that the "Little Hands" who create and deliver things, have a voice and are not forgotten in the grand scheme of things. I want to empower career professionals and new entrants to the business world who may lack the confidence from deferred and even usurped credit and acknowledgment for their work. I share my story so others benefit from it and become empowered to dream and achieve their own ambitions.
A sample of the concepts shared, include:
✔️You can work behind the scenes and still build a sustainable and successful career that rewards you with acknowledgment, respect, and meaningful accomplishments for what you deliver.
✔️ You can meld and own both your professional and personal lives - it is not an "or" proposition; it must be an "and" proposition.
✔️ You can create a structure and communication framework to support growth in your organization without compromising your authentic self, relationships, or values.
The comedian George Carlin shared that "it's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it… the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions (have) a greater influence than an individual's choice.”
I am not asleep, and I am an ambassador with the earned credentials to propose that the American Dream is not an Impossible Dream and it is still vibrant, attainable, and should be pursued- after being carefully redefined. I am living proof of this I made most of my living by being Sancho Panza to many Don Quixotes, and I have zero regrets. The adventures were great.
My name is Sebastien Taveau and in the words of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: “I am not throwin' away my shot… (because) just like (this) country, I am young, scrappy, and hungry and I am not throwin' away my shot. We’re gonna rise up!” Let's work together and make your starburst happen!
