Winners Come From Hard Times

This business blog is a bit offbeat compared to my usual written fare.  No offense intended to anyone.  

Has anyone noticed anything strange going on these days?  Things that might have been considered unusual just a few months back.  Perhaps the unusual fear that comes with disease, politics, social media, social unrest, hype, and disharmony and division that seems to have enveloped the land.  This type of fear is not the very real fear of a person facing their impending demise.  This more resembles malaise, lethargy and paralysis. 

First and foremost, CV19:  This disease will keep doing what it’s doing for a very long time to come.  As I’m writing this, friends and family have been going through this unpleasant disease complex.  Some are doing better than others and some are experiencing better treatment than others.  All had the ability to investigate approved protocols and unapproved protocols to determine which had better outcomes. Everyone was a victim in getting the disease.  No one was a victim of the research they did or didn’t do to decide the kind of treatment that would work best for them  We are all the final arbiters of our own health decisions.

So why in the heck am I bloviating about our collective medical condition in my business blog?  Because for we as business owners, life goes on, fear and hardships along for the ride. The need for your product or service didn’t go away by government fiat (except for the last class of businesses that the government has decided to keep persecuting – and even then, the market is still there).

There is still a need for YOU to lead the way.

So…honest answer, are you getting up in the morning with the mindset of winning, no matter what?  Or are you getting up trying to survive another day of being the victim of these difficult conditions?

I’ve noticed a lot of businesses this summer using the CV19 outbreak and summer heat to remodel their establishments. I’ve noticed bars that INSIST on requiring you to have a meal with your drink to sidetrack the no bars open rule.  I’ve noticed dinner delivery service drivers working extra hard, sometimes from their own restaurants…and advertising about it.

If you’re in the US, the government is flooding the markets (main street and wall street), to keep businesses afloat.  How are you using those resources (or did you even apply for them) to make your businesses more competitive than your peer’s.  Or at least to help it survive?

I’m not saying this situation isn’t hard.  In fact, it’s brutal.

But I’ve learned a bit in my temporarily adopted country of Mexico.  If you don’t work, you don’t eat.  And by the way the businessowners and cabbies down here are angry in the extreme about the business close downs.  Here in Puerto Vallarta, businesses have started ignoring the authorities and many of the authorities are turning a blind eye to these “offenses.” The US is seeing a smaller but growing revolution, as well.  Good to see.  I hope the US doesn’t devolve to the state Mexico is in, but the point is that…

you are not a victim.  You have a good brain and options to explore.

This is hard, but the survivors are the ones who use their government subsidies and their collective minds to cut their own path through this dense jungle of obstacles.  Unfortunately, many businesses won’t survive.  Make sure yours is one of the ones that does.  This is no time to feel like a victim.  Lift the malaise and make your mark when you get past this pseudo-apocalyptic mess.  Be well but stay living well for as long as you get the privilege.

If you’d like some help getting through these troubling business times,