I'm excited about 2009 - I think it's going to be a great year. That's because I am on a different economy.
I believe there are two economies at work in our country. One is the economy that you read about in the papers and hear on the news everyday - even on conservative talk shows.
It has been said that there are no traffic jambs on the extra mile because so few elect to travel there.
Not long ago Barb and I were dining at a local restaurant with my son and his wife when all of a sudden the manager showed up with a luscious dessert for the four of us.
In his business classic, Good to Great, author Jim Collins recounts the remarkable story of Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest ranking U.S. military officer to be imprisoned during the Vietnam War. Tortured over 20 times during his eight-year imprisonment, Stockdale is quoted as saying, "I never lost faith in the end of the story.
I remember well the campaign slogan of the Clinton era - "It's the economy, stupid!" Its basic message was that most of us had it wrong; that it wasn't about politics, policies, competence, or character. It wasn't about abortion, gun control or the definition of marriage.
A question we all need to be asking ourselves these days is whether we're going to buy into the mentality of fear, lack, bailouts, and bankruptcy. Or, if what is going on around us simply represents great opportunity; challenges that if overcome will move us forward to becoming the individuals and companies we want to be.
Booker T. Washington once stated that the essence of success is not goals met or achievements made, but the obstacles overcome in the process. For the entrepreneur, then, this means there is more to small business than just making money. There are intangibles that - in the long run - can be worth far more than the bottom line.
I am not a sports fan but happened to be watching the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. My son John, who is a sports fan, was watching with me. I asked him: "Why is it that the Pistons win, the Redwings win, and the Tigers can win, but the Lions never win?"
The response he gave was one I could be thankful for.
It=s easy to forget that the person whose birth date we celebrate December 25, 2008, came for a purpose. And while I may be saying things that have been said before, I would be remiss if I didn’t recall the reason why this child whom they named Jesus appeared on the scene some 2,000 years ago.
We kept hearing during the presidential campaign the mantra of change - not a small attraction for those who were fed up with the current state of things, and a common call to youthful idealism. And now we are getting a glimpse of what that change will be - all three branches of government controlled by the same party, an administration comprised largely of previous and liberal politicians, and an approach to ruling that has a definite socialist bent.
Those of us who are Christians - and many non-Christians for that matter - make the mistake that we have God pegged, all figured out; that we know what He is going to do and when He is going to do it and how He is going to get it done. What foolishness! Even the apostle Paul did not presume to know fully the mind and ways of God.
