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Did Obama Really Say, ‘If You’ve Got a Business, You Didn’t Build That’?

Posted by:     Tags:  ,     Posted date:  July 18, 2012  |  6 Comments


July 18, 2012


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Of Course We Built It

There’s no question that as small business owners we have built our companies.

The question is not “Did we build our businesses?” — of course we did. The true question is more along the lines of “Why argue over such a moot point?” Many have taken the statement out of context and exaggerated it to the point where it appears inane.

Take a closer look and you’ll likely find that the media has taken to political arguments based on fallacy — in which opposing parties quote each other out of context in order to misrepresent their position (typically to make it seem more simplistic or extreme).

Quoting someone out of context is often done carelessly. Other times it is done deliberately. But it is our responsibility to become familiar with the surrounding matter, so we can make an accurate assessment.

Keep in mind, the mass media is frequently under fire for taking quotes are out of context. But as a successful and intelligent small business owner it’s important to realize that there is always a “story behind the story.”

What do you think about the media’s representation of President Obama’s statement during his recent campaign stop? Let me know in the comments section below.

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Photo Credit: The White House

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Erica Nicole is the Founder and CEO of YFS Magazine: Young, Fabulous & Self-Employed. She is an accomplished serial entrepreneur, acclaimed small business expert, dynamic speaker, syndicated columnist, philanthropist and Christian thought leader. She has been featured in Forbes, Fox Business, The Huffington Post, Mashable, AOL.com, Examiner.com and many other national media outlets.



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  • http://www.teleworkingexpatsforhire.com/ Nicola Pitt

    It’s refreshing to read well-balanced writing after all the recent Obama-bashing in the media.

  • Chris

    This President has made his opinions clear time and time again about “so-called job creators”…this time he just stepped in it and he (and his supporters) are trying to dig himself out of it. Do not be confused about his disdain for business. 

  • Commagereinternational

    Thank you for making the President’s statement clear. I am a
    small business person (25 years) and I did not hear anything wrong with what
    the President said, he is correct; if there were no roads, bridges, freeways,
    sidewalks, flood drainage then people could not get to my restaurant in Texas.
    Yes other people help build my business such as “customers” that buy and
    vendors whom I do business with help build your business. The government has a
    role as well, they puts the structures in place to reach my business either by
    car, bus, plane, or walking. Yes my teacher inspired me to do international
    business because of my concept that I learned from him in International
    Business, and the internet allows me to do research so I can reach the public. Yes
    the idea and concept belongs to the individual but you must have others in
    place to help make it grow. No woman or man is an island, businesses does not
    grow because it is a good idea or have connections.  Again, this game the media is playing is—  let us see who will allow us to do the thinking
    for them and see how far  will  their mind run blindly away.

     Mitt Romney is a non-thinker—think
    about it, 4 years ago when his own party did not think he was good enough to be
    the candidate, they choose John McCain and recently John McCain said Sarah
    Palin was a better choice-that is not a good thing to say.  Mitt can’t  think because his campaign is not based on the
    good he has done, but “what he going to do” plus he coat-tails off of every
    word the President says—his job is to twist what has been said so the people
    will ask  unsavory questions and say  distasteful things that does not make sense.  Please wake up non-thinkers, and discontinue
    being spectators and stop looking at what is being said and start hearing what is
    being said—Mitt is not for small businesses, he has no platform. He is simply
    looking for those that are sick with a shut-in mind.  Yes President Obama will be re-elected. God is
    in charge.

     

     

  • Commagereinternational

     

    Thank you for
    making common sense!!! Games the media is playing will bite them in the end. For the
    most part Romney’s rebuttal is trying to say the same thing the President
    is saying, just differently. Mr. President is correct no man is an island, we
    all receive help one way or the other–we all have customers— people that buy
    your product or you sell your product to them.  I
    have a 25 year old business, 10 year old catering business and now a restaurant;
    without customers I would not be in business no matter how good I am at what I
    do.

    What is so hard
    to understand about to be  successful we need
    each other and that’s in  business  as well as in life, government is also a part
    of that in varies ways, nothing and no one stands independently on it’s on.   By the way government has always been in the middle of everything we do, I don’t know where some people are coming from saying I don’t want governement in my life–governement is your life you are the government–people you and me we just select representatives–if you understand what government is all about.   We got to stop the republicans with the “Diversions” which is what the Republicans are good at, they are confusing the non-thinker.

    Romney has the
    right initials MR for Mis- Read.

     

    Thank you for
    making common sense!!! Games the media is playing will bite them in the end. For the
    most part Romney’s rebuttal is trying to say the same thing the President
    is saying, just differently.

    Mr. President is correct no man is an island, we
    all receive help one way or the other–we all have customers— people that buy
    your product or you sell your product to them.  I
    have a 25 year old business, 10 year old catering business and now a restaurant;
    without customers I would not be in business no matter how good I am at what I
    do.

    What is so hard
    to understand about to be  successful we need
    each other and that’s in  business  as well as in life, government is also a part
    of that in varies ways, nothing and no one stands independently on it’s on.  

     By the way government has always been in the middle of everything we do, I don’t know where some people are coming from saying I don’t want governement in my life–governement is your life you are the government–people you and me we just select representatives–if you understand what government is all about.   We got to stop the republicans with the “Diversions” which is what the Republicans are good at, they are confusing the non-thinker.

    Romney has the
    right initials MR for Mis- Read.

     

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/2VOHPCDF2MIYDPCI6YTNBKXRDQ EricK

    My income taxes from my business have paid the salaries of government employees who mostly take my time, filing out forms.  When I’ve had sleepless nights wondering if I’d make a payroll or if I’d lose a client or if the advertising response rates needed to justify the media investment would pan out, the government was never there with me.  When I worked, like so many of your readers, countless hours, day after day, to make a reality out of my vision, and to only run into road block after road block until finally small advances began to turn into bigger break throughs, no IRS agent or regulatory bureaucrat was there offering help.

    My success is what drove the ability for the government to tax me, to have the money to build roads, schools and such things.  My success is what gave my employes jobs to buy houses, pay bills and live a fuller life.    No government will ever be able to do what we successful business owners have done.  They are entirely dependent upon us, like a small child needing food, is the government.  Without us, they’d starve.

    I would rather not have to speak in a voice that likely sounds vain and prideful.  I feel odd even speaking of my success in such an open and offensive way.  I just feel that it’s necessary given the current political climate, a climate I never dreamed I’d see in America where business owners and job creators are put on the defensive by the president.  Not just in this comment but it seems that it’s a recurring theme (remember Joe the Plumber?) interwoven throughout his governing philosophy.  

  • Steve Aho

    Preident Obama clearly said what he said and meant what he said. He clearly asserted regardless what you have accomplished and built — your successes are less a result your efforts and absolutely subordinate to the contributions of others. He was clear when he stated that others are responsible for your success and I’m here to tell you he,s dead wrrong. Had he ever tried to start and run a capitalistic, entrepreneurial venture he would not believe that. He is speaking from his point of reference in which his success was absolutely a result of using what government provided him and a result of what others did for him.

    However, as a 65 yer old entrepreneur after more than 40 years of sweat and personal sacrifice I’m here to tell you that I succeeded purely as a result of my own efforts and despite a very ordinary education, suffocating governmental redtape, growth stunting taxes, economic mismanagement and countless other governmental roadblocks. The only competent assistance and mentoring I received was from my loving wife and other empathetic entrepreneurs. You do mankind a disservice by supposing what others including the president may have really meant other that what he clearly stated. It’s very accommodating of you to surmize what it was he might have wished he said but also confusing disservice to those who know both what he did say and meant to say … as revealing and embarrassing as it was for many of those who support him.

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