American way of success

It seems that most of the gangster movies put great emphasis on people with low social status: In Goodfellas, Henry Hill starts his career as a child raised in a poor immigrant family; in Scarface, the main character Tony Montana is a political refugee from Cuba; even the majestic Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather gets his business started as an ordinary immigrant worker from Sicily. Some people may reason that, “Well, that’s because The Godfather trilogy is so influential that later gangster movies emulate it.” But I don’t think this opinion proper because back to 1930s, the big three gangster movies---- Little Caesar, Scarface and Public enemy all focused on crime careers of ordinary people. So what makes this movie genre pay significant attention to underdogs? Does it have relationship with America—the place where gangster movies are born? Absolutely.

America provides ambitious and capable people a chance to achieve what they want with their own effort.

I do not choose to be a common person. It is my right to be uncommon—if I can. I seek opportunity-not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to be the calculated risk, to dream and build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challengers of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the state calm of Utopia. I will not trade my freedom for beneficence nor my dignity a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid, to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say: This, with God’s help, I have done.

This is the entrepreneur creed in Thomas Paine’s brochure Common Sense. It points out the reason why America, once the colony of Britain, can reach the top of the world. America learned rules of management from Britain, but the fortune that America doesn’t have rigid hierarchy makes it possible for humble yet ambitious people to achieve success and wealth on this free land. Throughout American history, some tycoons like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Carnegie, all started their business as poor apprentices or workers. In America, the pursuit for private property is regarded as a moral imperative. As Philadelphia Baptist minister Russel H. Conwell claims, “…Money is power… I say, get rich, get rich!” The perspective that millionaires are the outcome of natural selection rather than inheritance lets American people pursue wealth openly. Although statistics released by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showed that social mobility is lower than assumption, personally I think the data failed to tell us what caused that outcome. The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. (Apple’s “Think Different” commercial 1997) Success is the outcome of personal effort and free social context. To gain something, a person should at first want to be different and then get prepared by endless and deliberate practice. If he doesn’t, he will achieve nothing even if he is given the most fertile land in the world.

Rooted in America, gangster movies certainly will reveal American value that you can gain success regardless of original social status. In Goodfellas, for example, Henry Hill grows up in a blue-collar family and gets a job in the carstand. But he constantly looks for opportunity to get to the top--- parking cars for bosses, selling cigarettes and knowing powerful people. He turns out to be one of the wealthiest people in his neighborhood and marries a pretty wife. As Carnegie writes, “Look out for the boy who has to plunge into work direct from the common school and who begins by sweeping out the office. He is probably the dark horse that you had better watch.” In Scarface (1983), Tony Montana disobeys his boss Frank, who is not tough and smart enough to expand the business, and in the end replaces him. Starting poor and aiming high in a fiercely competitive environment is a success theme that characterizes the lives of movie gangsters. (Rosow p.29)

The gangsters from rags to respectability are actually a metaphor of American entrepreneurs in real life. Thrown in a free market filled with fierce competition, entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs and Larry Page, started their careers humbly (It’s interesting that they both used garages as offices), endured skepticism and pressure, and finally gets to the top of the world. What’s amazing about America is that everyone can have the chance to earn his fame regardless of his start point. Though there are only a few people can get on to the top, these stories still inspire us to come to America, which at least can provide us a relatively fair land to chase and realize dreams.