It is Up to Us

The last six months has produced a seemingly constant flow of negative data... Bear Sterns... AIG... FNMA... FREDDIE MAC... $700 Billion bailout... CitiGroup cuts 21,000 jobs... plans another 52,000... GM requested $20 billion bailout... Local companies including Sprint, Capital One, American Century, H&R Block, Cerner, and The Kansas City Star have either had significant layoffs in 2008 or have announced plans for significant reductions in their workforce. It is hard to believe that less than 12 months ago (December 31st, 2007) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 13,264. The DJIA closed on November 17th at 8,273... ouch. What’s next? When will this end? How will we recover?

In light of these challenging times I think it is important to remember a few fundamentals. Our economy is driven by small business. Let’s review some statistics published by the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy www.sba.gov/advo.

• There are approximately 27 million businesses in America.
  
• Small businesses (Under 500 employees) represent 99.9% of all businesses in America.
  
• Small business have generated between 60% and 80% of all new job creation annually over the last ten years.
  
• Small business creates more than half of the non-farm Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The way out of this economic mess is rooted in small business. The entrepreneurial spirit is the foundation from which this great country was built and it is without doubt the way to recovery.

It seems that our culture has slipped away from the fundamentals toward a mindset of entitlement. It is easy to put the blame on others... ”The lenders should never have loaned money to people who could not afford the house”... really? What level of responsibility should we take for our own actions and decisions? It seems that we took a turn at some point. While the government is certainly useful in many ways, it seems like our culture has started to view our government as responsible for the solution to all of our woes.

I think it is time for the entrepreneurs of this country to rise up and take back responsibility for our future. It will not be easy... it never was easy. It will take hard work, creative solution oriented thinking and collaboration. It will involve leaving our comfort zone and making things happen by using unconventional strategies. And here’s a novel concept... it might mean deferring personal gratification, delaying buying the new car or wave runner. Maybe we should start measuring our success based on what we are building as a community with our businesses and families as opposed to competing with our neighbors for the best looking toys.

I think Tom Peters hit it on the nose in his book “Brand You 50” that he wrote in 1999. If you have not read this unique book I recommend you pick it up. Mr. Peters writes, “Work-yours and mine-as we know it today will be reinvented in the next ten years. It’s as simple as that.” We are seeing how putting our future in the hands of corporate America is not working for us or our families.

The next five years in our lives will be written about in the history books. Our grandchildren will ask us what it was like to live through this period. We will have stories to tell. What will your story be?

Martin Luther (1483 to 1546) once said, “Great people and champions are special gifts of God, whom He gives and preserves; they do their work, and achieve great actions, not with vain imaginations, or cold and sleepy cogitations, but by motion of God.”

Now is the time to act on your dreams and follow your path to greatness. It is up to us to make a difference.