Too many workers still think that if they’re loyal to a company, they’ll be taken care of for life.

It’s an antiquated view that management consultant Howard Goldman has no trouble being frank about.

“What we have in America are lazy, complacent people who are basking in the illusion of entitlement, like the world owes them a living,” says Goldman, a partner in the California-based international firm Management Consultants.

“And the sad part is, the people who are taking our jobs are better educated, more ambitious, and higher-skilled than we are,” Goldman says.

“What we have here are people who want to make $80,000 a year and not do anything.”

Tell us how you really feel.

The author of “Choose What Works: The Proven Secrets to Professional Greatness,” Goldman has done business with some high-profile clients, including Apple Computer, Walt Disney Co., Morgan Stanley, Estee Lauder, Land Rover and Sprint PCS.

He recently talked about his latest project, a book on “The Death of Loyalty” to be published next year.

Q Don’t you think calling workers in America lazy, especially in the context of outsourcing jobs, is going to offend people?

A. This is a very adult conversation. It’s like people looking at a round world with flat-world thinking. In 1492, smart, intelligent people thought the world was flat and if they said it was not flat, they were crazy.

In 2004, the flat-world thinking is that somehow the economy or your company owes you a living, as opposed to having to look at ways of mobilizing yourself to the thousands of opportunities to creatively respond to the marketplace, either as an employee or a self-employed person.

Q What do you mean?

A. I’m saying that for the most part people are reactive or even worse, passive with regard to managing their careers. They wait for something to happen to cause them to act. What I’m advocating is an approach where people actually declare themselves self-employed.

I call the term “creative agent.”

QWhat does being a creative agent involve?

A. Being a creative agent is about being able to position yourself as someone who is responsible for your success in your career as opposed to being someone who is victimized by the economy, globalization or your boss.

You have to be able to understand where your industry and company are going with respect to what’s happening in the market.

Q What do you mean?

A. An example is, am I working for a financial services company whose employee base can easily be outsourced to India or China? Try to do the kind of work that has to do with adding value and can’t be done remotely.

Q What else do you recommend?

A. You have to sell yourself in ways that are subtle, systematic and reinforce you becoming the person you want to be. The approach is linguistic. That is to say, what people speak produces the world they live in.

You have to be able to connect to new opportunities that you help create by virtue of your approach in the world.