If only we could hatch a few more successful businesses, then we'd all be wealthy.
We need an evil plan. New Zealand, I mean. For world domination.
Charlie's had one. They sold their cordial company to Japanese brewer Asahi for lots of clams. Mwaah-ha-ha.
But instead of hailing the company's founders as evil geniuses, the sale seems to have prompted the usual rending of garments and unrelenting self-bollocking.
"It does bother me that as usual our business heroes are the guys who built a great company and then sold it within a couple of decades. The old 42 Below argument again," one business journo sighed with our usual Tiggerish optimism.
Hold fire, soldier. Isn't what matters that we work out how we can make and flog off a few more companies like Charlie's?
I know first-hand that business journalists are by nature somewhat twisted individuals. We are all frauds. If I had any credibility I'd have started my own zippity-doodah company.
Most business journos, especially the throbbing-brained sort who read Treasury briefing documents in the bath, seem to think our evil plan for world domination should simply be to get the right policy settings. This will apparently stop companies like Charlie's being sold.
It also happens to sound flasher than talking about stuff normal people can understand like flogging stuff and making money.
At the moment it seems quite fashionable to say we are poor because we pay rent in our own country and we should stop selling assets and make sure no more dirty old foreigners buy our companies. Oh, come on.
Deep, deep down, does anyone really believe that if you change the rules on foreign investment we are going to change our business culture and become a tigerishly go-getting country?
The various economic policies we have tried in New Zealand over the past couple of decades have not made us wealthy. We have continued to sink in the OECD rankings.
Is it possible all those tweedy commentators are looking in the wrong place for the answer?
Instead of looking at economic policies as the reason we are international slug-a-beds, perhaps we should be looking at ourselves. Put down the magnifying glass and pick up a mirror.
Yep, I know this sounds more like a Michael Jackson lyric than a coherent economic argument. Don't be fooled. It is also harder to do.
The wealth and well-being of New Zealand comes from thousands upon thousands of tiny attitudes we all have every single moment of every single day, rather than some kick-arse macroeconomic policy.
What matters is the stories we tell ourselves every day about who we are and what we can achieve.
If we want to make the kind of companies that potential evil genius young New Zealanders want to stay here and work for - and frankly a lot of them like working for multi-nationals - maybe we need to find some cooler stories.
A good first step would be starting with a blank sheet of paper. Stop going on about "failed economic policies of the 1990s" or any mistakes that have been made in the past. All that matters is now.
Instead of angsting about economic policy let's get a blank sheet of paper and work out our super-cool evil plan. Charlie's did it. Cheers to them. They are heroes. I bet Marc Ellis doesn't read Treasury documents in the bath.
dhc@deborahhillcone.com
