Ever hear this joke? Three advertising people are sitting in a meeting – a fourth walks in and asks, “Is anything all right?”
Ok – not much of a joke – more ironic I guess – but frankly true to the mark – not just about our business – to be fair – more of a state of the environment today.
And, let’s be fair – business is tough. Like everything that surrounds us, it affects our lives in its totality. More to the point, the negative atmosphere infects us. How could it not?
Budgets are down; clients want more for less – tension.
Revenue is down; pressure is on to deliver more profit for less – tension.
Harder to hire – tension.
Harder to reward – tension.
We have all cut back, downsized, and reprioritized in our private/home lives – tension.
We all have friends who are hurting – tension.
No doubt we are all worried a bit – tension.
Tension – Tension…
You get the point – it’s hard not to be negative, not to carp, whine, complain, bellyache, grouse, grumble…
Which of course leads to nitpicking, finger pointing and criticizing – not to mention nagging and fill in the rest…
Look – I’m no Pollyanna – I badger with the best. But to quote W.S. Gilbert, “Oh, wouldn’t the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?”
Now that might seem a bit naïve to you – and a bit rose-colored glasses like – but my sense is that complainers complain – good times or bad. Yes, the subjects change – but not necessarily the rhythm of the message.
Now let’s be clear – it sucks out there – no question – yet there is still huge opportunity out there for all of us. Business and personal opportunity.
Opportunity to grow, to change, to develop – opportunity to transform and, yes, to revolutionize.
Let me be even clearer – this is not the silver-lining-in-the-cloud message – frankly the silver lining needs a hell of a lot of polish and that is where I am going with this.
Listen:
You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.
– Shirley Chisholm
And there you have it.
I won’t pander by citing all of the examples of companies and people that flourished in adversity—but I will repeat that they advanced through innovation and hard work. They polished that tarnished and dull lining until it gleamed.
Again – business or personal – it’s all about looking around us and working hard to make it all work – it’s about changing the rules, dealing with what we have and believing that all of us – any of us – can and do make a difference.
Grouse…I do – it helps to clear the pipes on occasion – but then deal…nothing is perfect – but then again it beats the alternative….
What’s your view?
I totally agree with you David. Recession or no recession the whiners will keep on whining.
Special thnaks to B. Wein for inspiring the Ramble
Something we should remember is to be thankful for what we have right now. It could be a lot worse for most of us. Sure we will and have hit bumps in the road, but for most of us, it is a bump and we’ll get through it. Hopefully we’ll learn a thing or two and take that with us to the next challenge.
There is surely a connection between necessity and humanity. At a time when the unwieldy variable is the health of our economy, this connection comes to play greatly. The lack of cash in the hands of people causes them to look inward. Personal growth is the unexpected result. Then comes a closer relationship to family and community. The hope for change has been set. Now we deal.
“Is anything alright?”. Kinda, yeah. Resulting innovations will be social by necessity, so it follows, that investing in each other is an obvious opportunity. As painful as change is, this may very well be a cycle of grand opportunity for each of us.
David, I agree. And, how can the grumbling be anything but natural? It is, in part, a way for people to concur imminent change for the good. Let’s just grumble more quickly and accept the accord. We can then move on to a better sense of self.
On a similar note – I’ve noticed a handful of news articles lately about recent college grads and how terrible a time this is to enter the workforce. As you said – to be fair – this is a challenging time, but does challenging always mean terrible? Perhaps the challenging nature of the current economic climate will instill an element of tenacity in recent college grads that will serve them well throughout their careers.
There is no doubt that human beings always complain about everything. If it’s right or wrong, they always look for the opportunity to do so.
And of course when a situation pushes us out of our comfort zone, tension appears.
Tension is definitely one of the outcomes of crisis, this is
logical. But I think that a crisis is battled with creativity, not
necessarily with Cannes-winning creativity but with creatives that generate better ideas, ideas that will help grow our business and our customers.
I believe that crisis will always make us more creative than ever and makes us think of things that we had never before imagined.
It’s obvious that crisis generates tension. But this tension should not worry us, it should occupy us.
I completely agree. It’s what separates the winners from the losers. I found this post to be extremely motivating- thank you, David!
WE have to find out where our opportunities are. Thats what I am focusing on right now.
Dr. Letitia Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
http://wrightplacetv.com
http://www.twitter.com/drwright1
I see people complaining about the recession, but a couple of years ago the same people were complaining and times were much better. A competent person has few to loose during this crisis, the incompetent ones that took advantage of the good times will suffer. The ones that they always complain.