I just got a call from a friend of mine. She is president of a company involved in construction and remodeling.

Thinking I already knew the answer, I asked her how her business was doing. Surprisingly, she said “Great! We almost have more business than we can handle! Our challenge is getting enough good people to do the work.”

When I mentioned that a lot of businesses, especially housing related businesses, are experiencing a recession, she simply said “Not over here!”.

What do you think would happen if she started thinking, “Oh no. The economy is falling apart. And the housing market is the worst. I better pull in the reins, cut costs, not take on so many jobs in this risky environment, and start a hiring freeze.” ? 

Exactly. It would be a self fulfilling prophecy.

So, does that mean we should just stick our head in the sand and ignore what we see? Of course not. But in every situation, there are opportunities for people that look for them.

If some of your customers are buying less from you now, think of ways you can provide more value to help them through difficult times. Not only will your business grow, but you’ll gain some very loyal customers.

Be like the late Sam Walton. When asked for his opinion of the 1991 recession, he said, “I’ve thought about it, and decided not to participate.” Within only two years Wal-Mart’s share price was up 200% !

If you are a huge multi-national bank or investment company, then ok, maybe you’ve got a steep hill to climb. But, if not, then ignore the exaggerations of the media, and just take care of business.

Like Earlene Vining says, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.“

by Tony Yost

A few days ago, Alice Seba wrote an article about 6 Year Olds & Their Incredible Determination. She tells about watching young children in their first attempts at ice skating and how they kept trying regardless of how many times they fell. Like learning to walk, they will keep trying until they get it.

How many times do we, as adults, try something for a little while and then give up, calling it impossible? When we were 6, nothing was impossible. What happened?

In Winston Churchill’s famous “Never Give In” Speech of 1941 he said “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

I think it was Esther Hicks who said “How can you fail if you never quit?”

Exactly…

by Tony Yost

Tim was a very positive and successful project/client manager that I used to work with. (His actual title was Solution Manager. Then he became the Solution Manger Manager…). Anyway, Tim developed a reputation for successful projects. He had a few guiding principles that I called “The Book of Tim”.

One of these principles, as Tim would phrase it, “If you find out that a ‘bad thing’ could happen, and you plan a solution to that ‘bad thing’, then the ‘bad thing’ won’t happen.”
He was right about that a lot more than he was wrong. And, of course, if the “bad thing” did somehow materialize, we were prepared, so it wasn’t so bad.

This applies to every step of a project. As programmers, you anticipate what errors might happen and you write code to handle them. As presenters, you anticipate what might go wrong…say your laptop with the PowerPoint presentation gets misplaced/stolen…so you have another copy on disk with you. As the product launches, you anticipate where users might have trouble and you go over it with the Support group.

This does not imply that you should think negatively about your project. Quite the opposite. You plan for success, and part of that success is dealing with the “bad things”.

It seems like I remember the Boy Scouts had a similar motto…

by Tony Yost

Speaking of quotes… here are some of my favorite quotations from Ed Foreman:

“Winners develop the habit of doing the things losers don’t like to do.”

“GIGO… Garbage In, Garbage Out… Good In, Good Out.”

“Worry is nothing more or less than negative goal setting.”

“The mind is never blank. If it were… how would you know?”

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends too soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

“Life is primarily for laughing, loving, and living. It ain’t just for whining, worrying, and working!”

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”

“We change when the pain to change is less than the pain to remain as we are.”

Do you know of some more? If you have a good quote, please leave it in a comment.

by Tony Yost

Yesterday, Buz McGuire had in his blog a link to “12 Lessons from Top Business Masters”.

For me, one quote really stands out.

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

by Ayn Rand.

Isn’t that powerful? That should be the motto of everyone who wants to succeed.

I have been a huge fan of Ayn Rand ever since I read the book Atlas Shrugged. It absolutely changed the way I think about business and money. I highly recommend this book. I won’t spoil the plot for you, but you will also find the answer to “Who Is John Galt?”.