Friday, November 14, 2008

Sensible Khakis: An Entrepreneurial Anthem

Entrepreneurs rock! You wouldn't guess it, though, to listen to rock music. (Marc Knopfler's, Boom, Like That, says something about the founding and rise of McDonald's, granted, but it hardly casts the enterprise in a very flattering light.) So in honor of entrepreneurs everywhere—but especially those in the board sports industries, whom I thank for making some very fun toys—I offer Sensible Khakis:



Like Take Up the Flame, which I coughed up on YouTube last week, Sensible Khakis' license leaves you free to play it just for fun. You can find the chords and lyrics—including the law-geek verse, not included in the video above, about the choices entrepreneurs face between sole proprietorships, corporations, LLPs, and LLCs—here. Like the terms attached to Take Up the Flame, any commercial licensees of Sensible Khakis will have to pay a tithe to one of my favorite causes—this time, Surfrider Foundation. That is not a likely scenario, admittedly, but I figure that the thought counts for something.


[Crossposted at Agoraphilia and Technology Liberation Front.]

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

u r blog Is very nice

Tom W. Bell said...

Well, u r very nice to say so!

Ran said...

I'm surprised that u r rock song takes such a zero-sum-game view of the employer–employee relationship. Surely happier employees are more productive?

Glen Whitman said...

The song is fun, but to counter the zero-sum-ish attitude noted by Ran, it seems like you need another verse. In that verse, you should talk about the policies you will implement in your new business -- including, among other things, allowing your employees to wear sensible khakis on casual Friday. Irony, see?

Tom W. Bell said...

Ran and Glen: Don't think I am unaware of the prospective entrepreneur's zero-sum attitude! But, firstly, some bosses *do* view employer/employee relations in terms of, "Your gain is my loss." Those bosses sort of well, suck, but they exist. And, notably, they tend to help turn employees into entrepreneurs. Secondly, for a would-be entrepreneur with high opportunity costs, even the gains of a good boss can come at the employee's expense. If I can make more money on my own than working for BigCo, then the gains BigCo gets from employing me come at some very real loss to me. That's why I might, like the character (not me!) in the song disdain the sensible khakis lifestyle.

Glen: Hmm. Sort of a "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" take? I do like that sentiment. Here's the problem, though: I worry that the long I perform, the less marginal gain my audience gets. So if I add verses to round out the argument (so to speak), I run some risk of fraying the already-thin patience of my audience. Some of that effect is just the usual wearing off of novelty. But it hits with a double whammy, in my case, because my performance skills still have a long way to go. Hey, it's kinda' like this comment, really! Blah, blah, blah . . . you've already tuned me out, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

not bad, keep practicing

Tom W. Bell said...

Thanks, Anon!

Anonymous said...

I am evidently behind on viewing your scintillating music video's but after stumbling upon them on a fellow Koch Fellow's website, I am plesantly surprised that such a constitutional law professor as yourself could be so creative! Keep up the good work and I'll be on the lookout for more intellectual songs from you.