image

I’ve had a real sense lately that the economy is inching forward.  I don’t mean on Wall Street or in board rooms. I mean in the hopeful glint I’ve detected in my clients’ eyes. And in the cautiously expectant expressions on retailers’. faces. Something is up.

I realize most business people have been tortured and beaten down by the spiraling losses of these last few years, made appallingly worse only by the unbounded optimism that preceded it. There was such an astonishing loss of innocence with the recession that seasoned business professionals were caught totally by surprise and unprepared. Many not particularly talented or deserving business people enjoyed unparalleled growth and riches while the economy sailed along on the back of foolish and dangerous loans and patently criminal behavior. But eventually the piper came a calling. And everyone had to pay up.

For the longest time since the great fall I rarely saw any optimism, or enthusiasm, or fight left in legions of business owners. Workers never felt less secure about employment knowing that termination could come at anytime. Virtually every industry lay waste, workers and management were dazed and shaken. And no matter how many earnings reports, or forecasts, or recovery plans were put forth nary a person seemed to have a lick of hope that conditions were improving. It’s dragged on and on, and what used to be known as “consumer confidence” became a mere memory like eight track tapes and rotary phones.

But I have observed long and hard with a keen eye to the emotional pulse of the small business owners. I have peered at their reactions, and response, and doubts, and only very recently have I seen a glimmer of hopefulness returning. Managers are looking further out, slowly hiring, making longer term plans and taking ever slightly more risk again. The terror that filled every cubic inch for what seemed an interminable sentence, is giving way to an ever so wobbly new normal. No one dare think business will ever be as it was five or more years ago. However, people are a funny lot. We have fortunately short memories of unmentionable pain and loss enabling us to pick up and move onward even when unwise.
The pendulum always swings back again and we will eventually regroup and dare to hope for far better days. Some will experience great affluence in the next chapter, many will survive to muddle through. But, there certainly is no denying that, by indicators other than the government’s or trade organizations, there is a new stirring. I believe it is finally time to cast off that horrible pall that’s cloaked us for such a long long time and back into fiscal health

Celebrity love/hate

 

image

 

So Lance Armstrong has finally done it. He’s crawled to the bully pulpit of Oprah, she in turn gave a head start scoop interview to her BFF Gayle King, and now every news and magazine,and late night show is a buzz with his mea culpa. But here’s the thing, Americans love our celebrities. In fact, it borders on something far darker, worship. And yet, inevitably we will dance and sing at the demise of those very same celebrities. Why do we do this? What is our obsessive fascination with watching these people fall? It happens so frequently we could set our watches by it.

They are, after all, just humans. Mere mortals everyone. They make all the same embarrassing, foolish, jack ass mistakes that the rest of us make. They drink, and drive, they fall in love with the wrong people, they say the wrong thing at the wrong time, they coddle their obnoxious kids, and they screw up just as surely as all of us do. They just do it under the scorching heat of tv cameras.

But for some reason we skewer them on their way down. We delight in impaling them as they spiral out of control. Is it because we’re grateful it’s them and not us? Could it be that simple? Really? Because I’m pretty certain we will still make all the mistakes, and faux pas, and missteps we are bound to make. And when we do it won’t make the nightly news or late night talk shows. Thank God!

So would it kill any of us to allow them their foibles and their humanity and not have every discussion for days and weeks ad nauseum focus on some poor guy’s too public fall from grace? Surely we have better things to discourse in like an assault weapons ban and who will come up with a real solution for the country’s ridiculous fiscal disease.

 

image

Happy New Year!

2012 was memorable for so many reasons. Events stand out like the election, the alarming rash of mass shootings, weather that caused misery for many who are still trying to recover and rebuild. Some found love when others felt sorrow and loss. Some experienced great success while others languished in limbo.

But it was also a year filled with people really reaching out to one another. Each challenge and tragedy brought out the best in us. Every time it seemed like it would be hard to survive one more heartache someone somewhere did something noble in the face of adversity. I was filled with joy when I would see citizens, neighbors, and strangers step up to lend a hand or shoulder.

No one knows what 2013 will bring. But I know we will continue to see misery and hardships. And I also know that when those do occur people will demonstrate their humanity and support. That inspires me.

I wish everyone a joyous, prosperous New Year.

20121231-103447.jpg