Nothing But Awful Economic News
USA Today decided that this news was worthy of the headline in the Money Section today. My response?
I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter. The economic news aside, you must figure out a way to make a living for you, your family and your business. You must keep your head up. You must look for the opportunity that does exist in your area and make yourself sufficiently valuable that someone is willing to pay you for what you know, what you can do, and what you accomplish or you must move to a different area or choose another profession.
So how do you keep your head up when “Awful” news is all around? From where do you find the energy to overcome? Let me remind you of a little story:
See, there was this old donkey that had been a part of a farmer’s life since birth. The farmer loved the donkey and the donkey was a great donkey. One day, the donkey got too close to the well and fell in. The farmer was very dismayed. He knew if he didn’t get the donkey out of the well, the much beloved donkey would die and ruin the water well at the same time.
The donkey was thinking the same thing. He wanted to live. He wanted to live another day to pull the plow, see the world, enjoy his life.
After several hours of contemplation, the farmer called in some of his friends. Within a few minutes, they had all concluded that the only thing to do was to bury the donkey in the well and at the same time lose the water well by filling it in with dirt. So, they all grabbed the shovels and started throwing dirt in the well.
As you can imagine, our old donkey realized what was happening. He understood his beloved master had few choices but he could not resign himself to die in this way. So, he decided-and you must decide too-to use every opportunity he had, even this one, to his advantage. He wanted to live.
So, with the determination required to overcome even these current economic times, the donkey began to shake the dirt off his back with every shovel load intended for his demise. But that was not enough. He determined that in addition to shaking the dirt off of his back that he would have to jump at every shake. As the shovels full of dirt where thrown into the well, to bury him, he developed a pattern of shaking and jumping, and then shaking and jumping and then shaking and jumping. As tired as this constant activity made him, he knew that it was working and that it would eventually lead to a positive outcome.
But about half way through, he became exhausted. He decided to rest. (He probably ready too many front page headlines) As the dirt from the shovels began to overtake him, as he realized that if he stopped now, he would surely die, and all of his past efforts would be in vain, he jumped as hard as he could.
But, since the dirt-lack of marketing to referral partners, lack of developing a new plan to combat these economic times, even perhaps overlooking the need to move to another area or change professions-had built up on his back and around his feet-like concrete now, they held him down- he was not able to jump very high.
As a matter of fact, the first shakes and the first jumps seemed to be to absolutely in vain. But, he was determined. And he shook some more, and he jumped a little harder. He was determined but more importantly, he got his focus back. (He stopped reading all of the headlines.) With all of his might, he determined, it was now or never and he shook and jumped as hard and deliberately as his more focused mind and body would take him. And with that focused effort, he overcame.
Over and over and over and over again, the donkey shook and jumped. He took what was intended to be the dirt that made his grave and with determined effort, over and over and over again, through his focused action, he turned the burial dirt into foundation dirt.
Eventually, as his foundation grew, he began to rise higher and higher in the well. Finally, the foundation was great enough that he just crawled out of the well. The farmer and the donkey were ecstatic.
So back to the “Awful” economy-it doesn’t matter. You still have to make it so you should just determine to find a way to turn the bad news of the day that was intended for your death and stand upon it to find a way to overcome.
Joel Pate is an entrepreneur and founder of multiple successful companies in the mortgage, real estate, and marketing space. For more information on Joel, contact him
If you want to learn how Joel created over 5000 referral sources in eight years, click here:
