Dave Denelle, Journal general manager, dug out a 20 year old message and handed it to me. "You wrote this at the beginning of the 1989-1991 recession. You could put this in now, change a few of the names/facts and it could be perfect." I perused it.
It mentioned the President whose name was Bush, wouldn't have to change that. I mentioned a dictator named Saddam, who is no longer with us. I referred to all of us business guys who took bows for doing so well in business, and the stock market that helped us make even more money by our smart investments. That was 20 years ago.
Suddenly I realized that we have been running our businesses successfully and the same way since then - so what the hell happened?
The results are now going backward. We can blame the government, but what good will that do? We can blame the greedy mortgage companies, or the naïve people who took on a mortgage that they couldn't afford, but what good would that do either? We could blame the lobbyists who bribed the politicians to do things that might not be in the public's (we're the public) best interest. We could blame the people who manipulated stocks so they looked blue chip and actually weren't. Let's see - who else is there? Oh yes, the politicians themselves, who we elect to protect our interests, were too late in finding out that the bureaucracy doesn't allow anything to ever get done - especially things that make sense.
So that's a lot of people to be blamed - but what good will it do us to blame anyone? That 20 year old message must have related some good advice because we pulled out of that recession. Here's a quote from that message.
"Accept that you control your own destiny and ask yourself what are the basics of business success. The answer? Service! As ye serve so ye shall reap. Ask yourself the same question you asked yourself when you started your business. What do your clients and prospects need to succeed and how can you provide it? Only approach THE PROSPECTS THAT YOU CAN HELP. Don't waste their time. Tell the end of the story first. Advise them how you can help them right off the bat. Don't bullshit them. And here's the scary part. Go after new clients. Remember when you started your business, all the clients were new. You did it then and you can do it again. What did John Kennedy say? DON'T ASK WHAT THE COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY. He was right. He was shot! But don't worry, no one is going to shoot you for trying to serve them. They'll end up loving you for it. And maybe they'll end up buying your product or service."
That's what I wrote 20 years ago. Do you think those ideas are too old fashion? I think they are older than that. Give, give and then give some more and it will always come back ten-fold. I wonder how long ago that was written. Over 2000 years ago maybe?
Well, I don't know what you're gonna do, but I'm gonna rustle the bushes and find out who I can help stay in business - then do my best and see that happen. And then maybe I'll be calling on you.