The Attitude Adjustment In A Downturn – No Need For Desperation

The constant cry in the media is the desperation of the economy.  Since my view of economics is different than the so-called experts, we will leave it for a discussion at another time.  What is important is having an attitude adjustment in the present downturn and for that matter in any seemingly desperate situation.

In my last posting, I mentioned poor executive planning in my second business such that the personal injury caused all sorts of repercussions to the business entity.  This incident caused a downturn in business activity.  A downturn has many different drivers and instigators.  How do we deal with events that result in emotional impacts to the business entity and to all the humans that are involved?

What got me thinking about all this was the number of tragic news stories in our area regarding murder-suicides and what the relationship was to downturn events in the lives of the people.  I had to examine my own environment and acknowledge that things are different in my business then they were in the past.  I was reflecting on all the impacts the new federal legislation will have on the small and medium business environment and what the egregious cost will be to all of us.  I was reflecting on the real unemployment numbers and what a State Senator said to a group of us  - “When small businesses go away, the business and the jobs they provided rarely ever come back.”  In all my reflections and thoughts, I asked myself why am I not desperately depressed.

Then it dawned on me – my background gives me a different perspective on life than many folks.  So, what is that and how have I applied personal life lessons to business?  It all started off from a lot of military training that I had.  Although I was Navy, some of that training came from a Marine instructor that hammered home the idea of adapt, improvise and overcome.  These simple words when applied to life and especially business life allow one to extrapolate into common business activities like these:

• Adapt – to the shifts in markets, to customer expectations, to product life cycles, capital markets, legislative encumbrances/regulation, etc.

• Improvise – simply, in business this is called the process of innovation.  This is creativity through the use of whatever is available.  This should not be limited to technology but is extensible to financial and strategic models as well as the business model in total.

• Overcome – this is all about risk management and problem solving with a perspective of prevailing over the situation, competition or the circumstances.
  

I had a lot of interesting training in those military days but one that sticks to the heart of an attitude adjustment was the comments made by the CO (Commanding Officer) of the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance & Escape) School in San Diego back in the day.  He was a Vietnam POW.  What he related to us was that in the midst of great trial there are three gifts that transcend all and remain forever to keep ones attitude adjusted.  He talked about faith, hope and charity in the middle of calamity.  Agreeably we were there to enhance our preparedness skill but from a perspective of humanity; these three are core to survivability.  I recalled that lecture today.  Since these three values are a common part of my everyday thinking, I often don’t think about why I react differently than others when the muck sprays through the fan. 

What I learned form this Navy Captain fit well with my worldview.  His first point on faith was simple yet complex:

• He said you have to first maintain your faith in the living God since there are no atheists in foxholes or POW camps let alone the heat of life. 

• He said you have to maintain faith in your Country as our Forefather originally founded it.

• He said you have to maintain faith in your family that they believe you are there even in the midst of trouble.

• He commented that when we tell our fellow warriors “to keep the faith” that we are reminding them of first three points.

• He said you have to maintain faith that God or your county has not forgotten you.
  

Then he talked about hope as being built on faith first.  Our hope has to be built on a foundation that is substantial and not on some person or politician who is full of cow plops.  Hope in the Greek language has a meaning of confidence.  That is why you put your confidence in those who have proven themselves to be true, full of virtue and valor such as your fellow warriors and family.

Then he finished off talking about charity.  This is more like the idea of goodwill and benevolence, which is that first order of affection to others.  This transcends everything.  It could be as simple as a smile, a thank you, a nod of acknowledgment, and an extended hand.  The idea forms from that first point of faith.  It is the right thing to love our neighbors as ourselves especially in the midst of the fray.   The hardest aspect in the intensity of a downturn is to have that charity toward ones self.  Yet, we have to start there so that we have to give to others.

I have applied these principles and others when things are going well or in a downturn.  My wife always reminds me that when ‘things get tough, the tough get going’.  It is about attitude.  As the CO of SERE School taught us, those that do not have a mental attitude that is based on principle and desires to survive, don’t make it.  With that, it is the responsibility of those who are of a strong mental attitude toward life and business to extend that meaningful charity to hose spiraling into the potentials of despair and desperation.  Desperation can show up in business in many ways that ultimately cause the business entity to flounder.

If we focus on the media, the economy is in a tailspin.  OK, the fact is that for the small and medium business environment that drives over 90% of the economy and employees about that same percentage; things are tough.  The difficult aspect is that we are getting hammered more and more by the legislation.  Who knows what the next year will bring.  But there is no reason to become desperate if we stand on those principles of faith as mentioned as well as our fellow business colleagues; that we have hope for tomorrow based on the proven track records of our businesses and are able to improvise through innovation even if we have to restructure what the business entity is all about and that we have charity towards ourselves and our business colleagues.  This may mean that we look more to new collaborative methods of approaching the markets or how we better extend common courtesy to our vendors and our customers.

To continue to build a sustainable legacy for our business entities, one primary key is an attitude of success.  We want to remember to adapt, improvise and overcome through living in faith that gives proven hope so that we can be charitable.  Remembering what I had the privilege to learn from my friends from the Teams - ‘yesterday was your only easy day’ and my addition to that is – every day is a Monday and Murphy will show up.  We have the capacity to build up others and carry through the inane times, as we are confident in that which has given us that eternal and internal strength.