Herman School of Business
Is It News Or History?
Is it really ten times worse than the first time you heard it? When a Doctor says, “You have a broken leg” you take in the information and start the process of dealing with it.
When the nurse comes in after the Doctor leaves and says, “So you broke your leg huh” it didn’t double the problem. It was just another report of the same problem. Then a friend visits to discuss your broken leg after your family went around and around about the broken leg. Soon you are very tired of talking about the broken leg.
More than a year ago some of us knew there was a disaster coming for the economic condition of this country. Was it the fact that house prices were nearly doubling overnight, or the fact that our grandchildren have more toys than a Toys-R-Us, or maybe it was seeing a construction worker in a tricked out Cadillac pick-up truck? Could it have been the fact that everyone seemed entitled to a trip to Europe, a new wardrobe every six months, or the fact that a bank would lend you one hundred and twenty five percent of the inflated value of your house? Oh…now when you read this you get it. What took you so long?
BUT…Enough already!
Yes, we have a broken leg and the recovery will be hard and the pain might get worse before it gets better.
Don’t let the fact that some newcomers to reality are just discovering the broken leg and reporting on it as if it showed up on an X-Ray last night. You knew our leg was broken months ago…and started the healing process. The fact that your neighbor is just running in to tell you your leg is broken doesn’t mean you should feel that same pain over and over again.
Reporting lags behind reality. Reporters shout about what happened, not what is going to happen. They have to wait and be sure what they are saying has been confirmed. Many of us have already started working out on our healing broken leg. I saw Tiger Woods playing golf yesterday and he was amazing. We didn’t hear him crying for eight months because his leg was injured and it required painful surgery and a painful recovery. He won the U.S. Open last June, went and had surgery, put in the work to recover and is back and ready to win more tournaments, while some people would still be crying.
Let the news roll off your back. Hearing about it over and over again doesn’t really make it worse, it just makes some peoples response worse. The smart folks who recognized the debt issues, changed the way they conduct business to meet the current situation and are leading the way back to prosperity will be the news soon. But they will have to accomplish returns on their efforts and become history before it will be reported on the news.
When the one hundredth person comments on your broken leg…it will almost be healed by then.
- Posted: 26 February 2009
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business failure
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