The Great American Dream is generally interpreted as if you work hard, without complaint, you will become successful. Success means you and your family will live a comfortable life and your children will enjoy more successful than you do. The Salesman, Willy Loman, believes in a different American Dream. He believes that a businessman who is well liked and personally attractive will receive the American Dream of physical comforts and material success. My personal interpretation of the American Dream is closer to the one most people believe in. I think it is necessary to work hard and not complain. If anything, I am grateful for the chances I get to earn the American Dream. But, I also believe that I must be likeable. I think that people who treat others badly eventually undermine their own chances of success. From a management point of view, companies are made up of all types of people and the leadership role is to inspire everyone.
The theme of the American Dream runs all the way through The Death of a Salesman. This gave me many chances to think about how I felt about it and how I could use those insights from a leadership point of view. One thing was made clear to me. People need more than money to be happy with their jobs. The Loman’s live in Brooklyn and Willy has to travel from there to sell his goods. He has worked for the same company for 34 years. Even though he worked so long for them, they still end up cutting his pay and firing him. That made me realize that part of the American Dream is that you can trust the people you work for to treat you fairly. As a manager and leader it is important then to make sure your people trust you to do that and not abandon them the way the people Willy Loman worked for did. By establishing a climate of trust between staff and its management I can get the best from my people
Willy feels very strongly that being “well liked” is most important in business. He tries to teach this to his sons. . In the course of the story, Willy boasts that “one thing, boys: I have friends." . This showed me that some people need more than just good pay to feel good about the work they do. Part of the American Dream is financial security. For that management must make sure that people who are hard workers are well paid for their efforts. They need to be able to say that they work hard and do not complain and so are achieving the American Dream. However that is not enough for others. There are employees that value having recognition in other ways.
I do not know if this play had any influence on it, but the idea of being “liked” is very important now on web sites and facebook. Hearing “well liked” so many times, I thought about how important I though being liked is to the American Dream and I realized that it was important to be both liked and respected as a part of the American Dream. It is also important for a business as well. People see web pages and advertisement campaigns that use social media sites like facebook more if other people click on the like button and share them with their friends. This amounts to free grass roots advertizing, and that is the most valuable kind.
The reason Willy is not as successful now as he used to be is because he does not have the enthusiasm that he used to have. He still knows his product and he still travels, although when the play opens Willy had to come home early because he was too exhausted to drive and kept falling into a trance. He keeps contradicting himself and his wife Laura does not seem to think that is strange or consider it important. Willy is living in a world that is only partly real, and Laura is right by his side. This going back and forth between dream or trance, and reality continues throughout.
In the beginning, as Willy’s sons Biff and Happy are talking it is clear that they believe being well-liked means that you will also be successful. This is what their father taught them, that if they were well liked they would be successful. I thought about this, and what I thought about the American Dream and I realized that being a kind, likeable person would be a part of my American Dream. Part of Biff’s American Dream is doing what he likes. That to him is more important than being liked or making money. That is another important consideration. It is necessary to match a person to their job in order to get the best effort from them. By doing that he is happy to work hard and not complain, and a lot of people that like him just because of that. Because he works hard for what he gets there are more people who like him than if he became successful without working. When I thought about this from a leadership perspective and I realized that letting my staff know they were liked and appreciated for how hard they work might be just as important as having them feel well paid. In fact, it might be more important.
Throughout the play, Willy goes back and forth from dreams, to reality, sometimes back into the past, sometimes in real time. It seems he only understands being liked and having friends. He does not understand being loved and having family. In the end, when he realized his son Biff really loves him he kills himself so Biff can collect the insurance money. Although Willy often boasts about how many friends he has, In the end only his brothers come to the funeral. Laura wonders at this and asks “But where are all the people he knew? Maybe they blame him. . Learning about this play made me think of different ways to motivate people and make them feel like they were on the right track to achieve the Great American Dream.
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