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Don't let it bring you down!

September 2001 newsletter

Somehow, it didn’t feel appropriate to send my prepared newsletter after what’s happened in the past week. You’ll see it next month.

Instead, here’s three comments on our recent events and business. First, within hours of the Tuesday attacks I received numerous e-mails proclaiming the best way to “beat” the terrorists is to be better than ever at what we do best, business and freedom. A thriving free market economy with opportunity for all is quite an advantage.

It reminded me of a passage from “Main Street” by Sinclair Lewis. Keep in mind that Lewis wrote this to be cynical. He was quite anti-business and his goal was to make this character appear to be a buffoon. Here’s what “Honest Jim” Blausser had to say in his speech to the Commercial Club banquet in Gopher Prairie, MN (a fictional town).

“I want to tell you good people, and it’s just as sure as God made little green apples, the thing that distinguishes our American commonwealth from the pikers and tinhorns in other countries is our Punch. You take genuine, honest-to-God homo Americanibus and there isn’t anything he’s afraid to tackle. Snap and speed are his middle name! He’ll put her across if he has to ride from hell to breakfast, and believe me, I’m mighty good and sorry for the boob that’s so unlucky as to get in his way, because the poor slob is going to wonder where he was when Old Mr. Cyclone hit town!”

Pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? Time to get out there and do better than ever before.

Second, there’s a lot of press and comments about the fragile economy and whether the attacks will push us (and the rest of the world) into a recession.

It’s more important than ever to plan for the next few months to few years. Not everyone collapses in a down economy or recession. Some businesses thrive. Why? For many reasons. While some firms are naturally counter-cyclical, others are simply better prepared. They’ve established the value they provide, they have a real live sales and marketing plan or they’ve trimmed the excess fat and can be competitively priced.

If you don’t have a plan to attract, secure and maintain customers, now is the time to develop one and implement it.  Every industry has numerous strategies that work. The more of them you do, the better you’ll survive.

Finally, I just read an extremely interesting book. It’s titled, “Fields of Light” by Joseph Hurka. Hurka’s father, Josef, grew up in Czechoslovakia and started fighting the Nazis at a very young age. After World War II, he was a prominent resistance fighter against the Communists.

The book is the story of the son traveling to Czechoslovakia in the mid-nineties and “unraveling” the true story about his father (who didn’t share too much with his son over the years). How important he was to the resistance movement, his capture and torture, his release, his near death experiences as he smuggled VIPs out of the country and his eventual escape and immigration to the US.

A very timely quote appears near the end of the book. Hurka writes about his thoughts as he walks around Prague’s Old Town Square late at night.

“Suddenly, as I looked around, this ancient city Square seemed alive with spirits a half-millennium old, their bright streaks of torches burning as they gathered before Tyn [an ancient church], calling for their martyr. The old church spoke to me with the dignity of the ages; I had wondered, many times on this trip, how humankind could survive the extraordinary cruelty that had happened in so many places here, and whether humanity could overcome the drive for tribal war that seemed interwoven with each turn of history. The answer was Prague. It still stood, defiantly and gracefully, and humankind would march on.”

There are many cities like Prague around the world. Places that have survived tyranny, injustice, destruction, death and mayhem. It seems inevitable that we will survive also. Good always triumphs over evil, there are just some bumps and bruises along the way. As business people, our call to action is to do the best we can to support the economy.

© Copyright John Martinka 2000. All rights reserved.