Bloomberg’s soda ban is not going to work. Even Brian Wansink and David Just, the authors of one of the studies that the rationale for the ban is based on, say that it will backfire. According to the Wansink and Just, Bloomberg ignored a key part of the study.(The study demonstrates that the bigger the portion size, the more people eat.) In the study, people were given foods in gatherings where they were not likely to pay attention to portion sizes. But Bloomberg’s ban will take away people’s right to choose the size they want, which Wansink and Just believe won’t work to curb soda consumption.
The bottom line is that obesity is a problem that an individual must address. Without getting too psychological, overeating is an addiction, and it’s so hard to lose weight that the individual has to really want to do it.
Even more, it’s one thing to lose weight, but it’s another to keep it off. It’s so hard for many people to keep weight off that there are even studies that document what people do who have successfully kept it off. The National Weight Control Registry through Brown University studies people who have successfully kept at least 30 pounds off for a year or more.
I bet you could guess without looking at this study that people who have lost, say 35 pounds, and have kept it off for five years, exercise and monitor what they eat carefully. It’s kind of a no brainer right?
Yet no matter how educated our country has become about what it takes to lose weight and keep it off, there are still people who think they can do it quickly. It’s similar to people who think they can earn a lot of money without working hard or that they can land a great job without working hard to get it.
To date, I’ve done over 50 interviews with people who range in ages from the early 20s to late 60s. The salient theme that emerges from these interviews is that people who have a strong work ethic do well in their fields.
Read any of JobTalk’s interviews, and you will see that hard work is essential to excelling in your career. Whether you want to be a restaurateur, blogger, lawyer, small business owner, or another profession, you will need to work hard if you want to make a lot of money. (It should go without saying that you can work hard and be underpaid too.)
If you’ve ever dreamt of owning your own business because you think you’ll be able to make tons of money without working hard, think again. All of my interviewees who are several years into owning successful businesses still work full-time and plus; often the work they are doing is far from glamourous. John Procaccini, a restaurateur in Princeton, N.J., seats customers and works the register at PJ’s Pancake house. Jessica Durrie, who opened Small World Coffee in 1993 with Brant Cosaboom, can still be caught at her cafes wiping up spills at the condiment bar or breaking down cardboard boxes.
Being the boss doesn’t mean you’ve “arrived” and can work less. Roy Kaplan, who started JK Group in 1989, worked just as many hours per week at the time he sold the company as he did when he started it. Alisha Goodman, the executive director at a young nonprofit organization, works more hours than she did at her previous job.
Another important theme that has emerged from the interviews that I’ve done is that people who like what they do work hard. Would you really work hard for years on end at a job if you didn’t like it?