We’ve Moved This Blog!

Thank you for reading this blog, and you’re invited to move over to my new blog, 101 Tips To Grow Your Business, at www.IPLsmallbusiness/blog/.

See you there!

Doug Hickok

A Break In the Clouds

The recession we are in now is the worst one in our country’s history.  

There isn’t anyone in America who hasn’t felt the earth move under their feet; job losses, companies cutting back or going out of business, real estate troubles. It’s been a mess that’s affected everybody, and all the experts have told us to expect a long, drawn-out recovery.

But what if that’s not true? What if we’re already on the upswing?

There’s lots of data out there to support that idea. A wide variety of indicators from consumer spending and increased home sales to a revival in the credit markets all suggest that we may have hit bottom and be on our way up.

My question to you is, are you ready for that?

Once the experts tell us we should settle in for a long, hard economic recovery, it’s easy to ignore evidence to the contrary.

What would happen if you decide today that the economy is on the upswing? What would you do differently, how would you adjust your head, your company and your plans to that?

Top leaders in business are looking far down the road, unmoved by the ‘wisdom’ of the day, putting plans into action in advance of the recovery. They don’t wait for a lot of good news in the press before taking action.

What is your action plan for recession recovery? How will you and your business position yourself to be in front of the upswing?

We’ll be happy to help you figure out what that might look like. It’s what we do.

Doug Hickok, CEO, Institute for Provocative Leadership doug@IPLsmallbusiness.com

Fear Storms

You know how we get those big storms that roll across the country — ice, snow, wind, flooded streets and homes?

Well, we’re having big ‘fear storms’ sweep the nation these days, and those storms are about money.

Ever since the rot in our financial system surfaced and financial companies started their swan dives, a lot of people have been in a swoon about “the economy”.

The media love it. We get breathless reports and worried looks from all the reporters who can’t wait to tell us how much trouble we’re in.

I’ve got news for them, and for everyone who is full of financial fears.

First of all, there is no such thing as “the economy”.

There are millions of economies — your family economy, your city economy, the economic realities of your business or profession, and all of the economies of other people and nations in the world.

The newsies would have you believe it’s all one big thing that’s in terrible trouble. That notion sells a lot of ad space.

The truth is, in this time or any other, there are people doing poorly, and people doing very well. All economies are not the same.

I am a business coach by day, and one of my clients is the president of a real estate firm that specializes in property rental management. In a time where many people either can’t or don’t want to buy houses, the rental market is booming. No worries for him.

Renovation contractors are doing pretty well. Taking care of the houses we have instead of buying houses we can’t afford is suddenly in vogue.

Then there’s the myth that people don’t have money right now. Not true. First of all, the government prints money in a Washington basement (where do you think the bail-out money comes from?), and second, a lot of people were feeling very uncertain about the markets years ago and pulled their money out. There’s lots of money out there, and a lot of it is in cash.

So, people with a lot of cash aren’t going to invest in the stock market. Instead, they are investing in their friend’s business, in starting their own recession-proof businesses, in all kinds of new, creative ways that broaden our economic base.

Is it a good thing that investments now are more local and less about the stock market?

I’ll wade into deep waters with the view that America has been well down the road to second-tier status as a country for some time now. Over-dependence on oil. Under-educated kids. Spending without saving. Huge personal and corporate debt. A broken health-care system. Shameless politics. The list goes on.

This “downturn” is a blessing in disguise. It’s going to make us get off our butts and get creative again. We’re going to have to connect with each other, depend on each other more, live in communities instead of being lonely loners, figure out new ways to bring services and products to each other that make more sense.

The last fifty years have been the most prosperous years in our history, and that has made us lazy and complacent.  The illusion of America the unchanging was here. No more hard times, lots of good jobs and endless credit, and above all, lots of stuff. Always and forever as much stuff as you want. (you know, STUFF, what you buy in stores…)

Obese in America

What we’re finding out is that we’re not just a nation of people who are increasingly obese physically. We are also obese when it comes to our values, to our money management. We are obese in our intellectual and spiritual laziness.

We lost our edge, gave away our peace of mind to the ATM’s and the credit cards, to the belief that it was all endless summer and we didn’t have to be challenged anymore.

The good things about this shake-up time are too numerous to count, if… IF… we can raise our heads from the fear and the hunkered down, hands-over-eyes way of being and start seeing the opportunities in what’s happening.

Franklin Roosevelt had it right when he said that all we had to fear was fear itself.

Yet the scary events of the day have meaning and purpose.

There are bills due, and they aren’t just about money. We must learn to save again, care for the poor again, care about our neighbors as ourselves (ahem… a fundamental tenant of religion), and care immediately for this planet again so it doesn’t become a sauna.

We must accept changes such as we are going through now, just as we accept the seasons of nature. Winter isn’t death, it’s just a time of rest. Fall prepares for the time of rest, and then in spring, everything is reborn, and grows and grows until the harvest. On and on the great cycle goes.

Our finances, our national and international lives, are all part of those cycles, because we are first and foremost connected to nature, and we need to remember that all that is happening is in season, despite the scary realities of financial challenges.

It won’t be easy to ‘re-frame’ what’s going on. We will suffer and we will be uncomfortable, but both of those things are price tags for rapid growth and learning.

Anyone who goes to the gym knows that it’s hard to keep the muscle, the tone, the feeling good and healthy. You have to work at it, and when you stop, you get flabby.

America the flabby. That’s what we had become.

But not anymore.

Doug Hickok, CEO, Institute for Provocative Leadership, doug@IPLsmallbusiness.com