Business Success During Economic Downturns

Everyone seems to be feeling the pinch. Sales are down, tensions are running high. Depression has deepened the creases on everyone’s faces as they wonder who in their company will be the next one on the chopping block.

On the new business side, people are fearful of putting money into anything that has any risk (which most new businesses do), and so plans are delayed, procrastination, tension, and depression rule the day.

Though statistically we have seen similar numbers in the early 1980’s to the ones we are experiencing now, few of us under retirement age can remember a national fear like the one we are experiencing now. We hear it reflected back to us by our political figures, our news media, as well as in day to day conversations. All of those inputs confirm that our current paralysis is justified.

Throughout my life I have observed groups of people as they’ve gone through difficult times of all sorts, including economic. Some of these were brought on by poor business decisions. Some have been brought on by labor strikes, and some have been brought on by physical injury or various infirmities.

In each group however, there always seems to be those outstanding individuals that exemplify the indomitable American spirit. While everyone else has been put on hold these people do incredible things. They are often looked up to and sometimes written about. The one thing they all have in common is that they seem to have what I can only call, a “ferocious” determination to get to where they want to go. If you throw one object in front of them, they will throw it back at you. If it’s too heavy, they will find a way to go over it, around it, under it or through it.

Some of these people are the obnoxious sort that seem to have come out of the womb fighting. With others there is a quiet resolve that if you could measure it, you wouldn’t even consider getting in its way. For some it springs out of stubbornness. For others it springs from a refusal to be dominated. I think for others, it is a strength of will that is convinced that the path that is being taken is the right one, and that it’s end is worth whatever it takes to get there.

In the sports world we have seen many stories of this spirit. We’ve heard of golfers that would swing a club at a ball literally 1,000 times a day, every single day, six days a week, rain, hail, or brutal sun. They knew they would have to do this to be the best. We see Lance Armstrong who has refused to let cancer beat him down and instead has beaten his opponents down and has risen to the highest levels in his sport AFTER almost dying from cancer.

Personally though, I have seen this spirit in a number of people. I think of my Uncle Hank (Henry Kazmark) whose leg was blown off in the Korean War. I would only be speculating as to what drove him to excel in so many of the things he did. He was a better snow skier than most of the people on the mountain using his prosthetic leg (and no outriggers). He looked like a torpedo when he body surfed and could catch waves and ride them further in than almost anyone else out in the water. But what I saw on the beach at Lake San Antonio, California one day, really inspired me on what it means to persevere. He had seen other people performing waterskiing “beach starts” to get up on one ski. The technique involved standing on one leg and holding the other ski above the water, throwing a coil of rope out in front of you and yelling, “Hit it!” When the line goes taut, you fly forward and step up onto your now planing ski.