Economy

STOP IT!

STOP IT!

STOP IT!

Stop complaining and stop making excuses. So what if the economy sucks? Yes, there is/was a recession.  Yes, the housing market plummeted.  I know. I get it. I read more news from multiple outlets than I probably should.

As an entrepreneur and as a business coach, I don’t really care that the economy sucks and neither should you.

I was doing a speaking event recently in San Francisco.  It was a four-hour workshop on how to grow your company and foster an awesome culture.  The group I was presenting to was a large group of entrepreneurs from all over the United States.  Some had sixteen employees, some had one hundred and sixty employees, and a few had a couple thousand employees.   They were all planning on growing roughly 20% in 2009– and we’re in the throes of a recession – but they didn’t care.  Yet they kept talking about the economy in spite of the fact that they all planned to grow their businesses.

Finally, I told them every time I mentioned the word “economy” during the four hour session they were to scream, “STOP IT!” loudly at me.  We practiced a few times, and they were really loud for sure. I never mentioned the word for the rest of the presentation.

Everyone should play this little game with themselves: Every time you hear yourself saying either “economy” or “recession” silently scream, “STOP IT!” to yourself.

The reality is that there is a huge slowdown, and when it runs its course, we’ll all learn that it was worse than anything we’ve gone through since the Great Depression.  However, the smart and focused entrepreneurial companies will work around it will still do well. We may have another recession somewhere down the line, and if we do, there’s no reason to behave any differently than we did during this time.

As an entrepreneur, “the unknown” will always be a part of your life.

“Never miss out on an opportunity like a good recession.” – Jack Welch