Have you ever driven your car on an icy road?
What happens when you jam-on the brakes?
That’s right, you slide off the road and maybe end-up in a ditch or worse.
That is exactly what is happening to many people today. They are spending entirely too much time watching, reading, listening and talking about how BAD things are in this economy. They are focusing on blaming Bush or Obama or the Fortune 100 CEOS or whoever. As a result, they can’t help but react with fear by jamming-on the brakes.
My winters in Chicago taught me that when I was driving on icy roads and I would hit the brake it would not “prevent” an accident but rather “cause” one to occur. When we blithely slash expenses, lay-off our best and often highest paid people, discontinue investment in technology, marketing, training or improvement programs we are actually RE-ENFORCING our worse fears and jamming on the brakes. I can assure you that this will cause us to end-up in the ditch. Getting out of the ditch will not be easy and in many cases will end-up costing us more than we save.
Instead, I want to encourage entrepreneurs to certainly drive carefully and more diligently. To continue the analogy, we may need to slip into low gear but maintain that steady forward motion. This challenging economic environment is presenting new opportunities (devalued technologies and businesses), the opening of new markets (Green and sustainable areas) and allowing us to access resources which have not been as readily available when times were good (there’s more great talent on the street). This is a fabulous time for small businesses to grow and prosper. My most successful clients are now investing more into growth and expansion opportunities than ever before! We are taking our own advice and investing in the release of my new book, The Rules of Attraction, the release of our new Small Business Radio weekly show and in hiring several new consultants!
Just like navigating a treacherous stretch of icy road, it requires careful planning, quick reaction time, precise execution and a healthy risk tolerance. I plan on safely arriving at my destination on time and ensuring our clients do as well. Our positive mindset, practical skills, and sharp wits will permit us to do so. Won’t you join me?
Your action plan for this week:
Turn-off the news!
Cancel the daily paper!
Stop talking about how bad things are!
Don’t buy-in to the FEAR mentality!
I predict just 18 months from today, you will look back and be happy that you did.
Have a great week!
–Mark Deo