The Buck Stops Here

As I close in on my 30th year of business, the analysis of how we successfully traversed the wildest technology swings seemed to point to solutions this country might want to consider in its economic recovery plans.

One of the fundamental laws we learn when running a small private business is that you never count on outside help, and if you are waiting for direction, you will grow old (and poor). In fact, waiting to make your first sale and learning the meaning of delivering value in exchange for that first dollar is the birth of a business life. What that first experience brings is the realization that something you have done has prompted the first transaction. The key words, “something you have done” is the secret.

If you understand that it was your actions, your work and your calories expended that has allowed the next event to occur, you quickly begin acting to make it happen again. Once the excitement of making a dollar, closing a deal, and reaping the reward takes place, the success formula is born. The question then is whether the energy and motivation will continue to accelerate growth.

The present global competitiveness we face as a nation, our energy dependency and the huge debt we carry, all result from our collective lack of action. Waiting for somebody to help us out, give us direction and take care of the problem. In many ways every small business that thrives today faced the same set of conditions, but did one thing different. They acted and never went to sleep at the wheel. They never got comfortable. They never stopped innovating and most of all they never stopped learning and growing. Hunger and the fear it brings with it was at the very core of my business life. It made action easy to take and it cleared the way for learning and growth as a person. Today I wonder if our political candidates might learn more by spending a month working along side my staff than they could in any other way. If 30 years of change can be handled by LMS in a technology storm that has never been duplicated in any other industry, why couldn’t our country with all of its resources and capability have done the same? Clearly the fear and hunger that is felt by our citizens are not carried in the belly of our leaders, and that is the problem. We, the people (could I be writing a new constitution? I barely passed the English regents in High School), are the solution. In fact our trust in our leadership is the root cause of our problems today. So I have outlined my steps towards a solution, and it is based on the fact that the fear and hunger is present today in the belly of most.

Here it is>
1) Do not ask anyone to help us out of this mess.
2) Accept you are the one that will make something happen.
3) Focus with pinpoint intensity on how you can improve the efficiency of your output, regardless of what you do. What must you read, watch, and talk about to make your value and output grow? How must you change your daily routine to become a more effective and valued person?

The true test of whether you will be part of a collective strengthening of our national output will be determined by your daily comfort level. If you are comfortable, content, and relaxed, you are probably failing to grow. America is in crisis, and every working individual should be as ready to rebuild and protect our nation since the economic attack we are under can strip our freedom as easily as any physical war might.

So, is it that basic? Yes. That is what really makes me so mad that our country has fallen so far and now must fight for its life. It did not have to happen, but it did. Now following rule #1, let’s get on with it. The future is to be decided by ourselves. Do we carry enough fear and hunger in our belly? I think we do, and like all the generations before us that is all we need to get back to business. The world just doesn’t know what is in store for them when they starve and frighten the American soul. I’m getting hungry and I’m already scared, so it’s back to my war of business. I have put the world on notice.

Larry