small business, lifting yourself by your bootstraps

This is just a chuckle from long ago, certain to be a long post so some can move on now if they prefer.

Years ago I was partners in a business with $15,000 a month overhead. To put things in perspective the average annual income in the city wasn't that high at the time. Partnerships are often a rocky path, I had to buy my partner out. $15,000 a month overhead, I had $3800 cash on hand left after the buyout to run the business and care for a family of five.

Naturally this is when the entire area fell into a business slump. My business was way down, my customers' businesses were way down, my competitors were in the same shape. We were all crying in our beards and our beer! Me more than most because one misstep and I was underwater.

I had heard that claiming things were great could make it happen and it wasn't like I had anything to lose. I shifted my entire attitude, became positive and energetic, proclaimed to everyone that asked or commented about business being down that I was doing great! Some customers were more than a little skeptical but I stuck to my guns. Within three weeks my business was back to normal. The rest of the area suffered in the doldrums for four to six more months. Same thing happened a few years later, lifted myself by my bootstraps again!

Years later I was working a very plush job. Inside in a nice office building, light work, good pay. With too much time on their hands my co-workers spent a lot of it moaning and complaining about how bad the job was. After weeks of this I started nodding my head and mumbling assent now and then. Soon I was as discontent as any.

I left the office on a Friday swearing to myself I was gonna quit that chicken outfit if I had to pick up cans on the side the road. Seriously planned to quit first thing Monday morning with no job in sight and jobs being very hard to come by at the time. It was about a thirty mile drive home and about halfway home I woke up. "Moron, you have worked for your money in the past, maybe unlike some of those complaining!"(worked brutally hard for very little return)

This was the second best position I ever held working for someone else and I was going to toss it away because of other people's attitudes. I came in Monday morning with a different view of things and when others were moaning and groaning about the job I went the other way. Took about three weeks for this too but soon I was quite content to sit in the air conditioning and draw pictures for nice pay!

Our businesses, our jobs, even our lives are largely what we perceive them to be.

Hu
 
Love it, totally agree with you Hu, I don't always practice it, but I try.

Happiness is an attitude, lots of people can make you unhappy, if you give them that power, but only you can make yourself happy.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough;

Happiness is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual by Dennis Prager

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Love it, totally agree with you Hu, I don't always practice it, but I try.

Happiness is an attitude, lots of people can make you unhappy, if you give them that power, but only you can make yourself happy.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough;



Stuart,

I'm far from sunny all the time but I do try to maintain a positive attitude if for no other reason because a negative attitude is so self-destructive. I have competed at a handful of things over the years and when I get near competitors complaining about the weather or the conditions, or anything at all I take a second to note who they are and move on. I don't want that negativity soaking in. Scratch them out of the competition; I didn't have to beat them they would beat themselves. Very rare for those guys or gals to be competitive.

I suspect pretty much every self-help book says it, if at all possible people will not only live up to their expectations, they will live down to them too. Very few people exceed their goals and expectations.

Hu
 
Mind over matter with a helping of positive attitude overcomes potential failures and results in prosperity. Good for you Hu, that's how it should be! :thumb: You deserve what you've earned! :thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
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