As I sit here working on my home/web-based business, I am momentarily distracted by yet another disturbing piece of news about the U.S. economy. I mostly avoid this stuff, but this particular video is indeed frightening in its implications. Apparently, last September the economy was on the brink of collapse, literally within a couple of hours. (As if you thought it couldn’t get any worse.)
Well as scary as that is, my question (to myself and you), what the hell am I supposed to do about it? My best answer is, nothing. Or more to the point: nothing different from what I was doing five minutes ago, which is working, like I do every day. Working on my plan, and trying to grow my own business to the best of my abilities.
The fact is, neither you nor I have any impact whatsoever on what happens with the government. Sure, we vote, we pay taxes and all that—but when it comes to something as monumental as the very financial system itself, we are pretty powerless. And no amount of worrying about it is going to do you or anyone else any good.
My advice is to control what you can, which is all between your ears. You can tune out all the negative news and energy, all the stuff you can’t control, and focus on the stuff you can. Stop complaining and blaming the economy, the government, the banks, etc. and do your part to make the world better—starting with your attitude and outlook.
It sounds elementary, and it is. But I firmly believe that if more people took responsibility for their well-being, stability and output, and relied less on some benevolent employer or the government to take care of their needs, we’d all be a lot better off.
I’m not going to sit here wondering what the collapse of the economy might’ve done to me, my family, the country and the world. Instead, I am going to post this and get back to work. I sincerely hope a lot of people are doing the same thing.
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Photo credit: Duchamp
February 14th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Good insight Brandon. I'm not going to bury my head in the sand, but rather than flip out about the people and things I cannot change, I'm focusing on the fundamentals of my business and the one person and small number of things I can change.
February 15th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Ashe, thanks for your comment. I think people who hunker down and improve themselves and their businesses now, instead of worrying about all the "what-ifs," will come out ahead after all this mess.
February 26th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
IMHO that's a great philosophy that I try to share, though as citizens, maybe even as "blogizens" (?) my temptation is to be "in conversation" about awareness if not fix. Anyway, there is always "juice" at the transitions. Danger? Yes. Opportunity? Absolutely!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:31 am
Mike, thanks for jumping in this conversation and adding your comment. You make a good point about transitions–like the Robert Frost poem about the roads diverging in the woods. Not every road leads to disaster these days, and certainly some will lead to opportunity. Being active and creative beats sitting on the sidelines.
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