I’m guessing you’ve likely heard the phrase, “That’s too good to be true.“  Pretty common right?  What about, “That’s too horrible to be true.” …Not so much?  Not surprising really, when things are painted in ‘dark colors’ we tend to believe them.

It’s easy to hear bad news, just turn on your favorite form of mass media: TV, radio, newspaper, cnn.com, etc… take your pick.  The focus is likely going to be on what is going ‘wrong’.  It’s no wonder that after listening to the morning BBC news in my car a few days in a row my 11 yr old said, “Daddy why is everybody so mean in the world?  Are things really that bad?”  Well, if you believed the news, we should all just pack it in now and call it a day.

But are things ‘Really’ bad?  I don’t think so.  As a matter of fact, I’d argue that things haven’t been this good in a loooooong time

There was an article written for CNN recently that looked at the current economic trends as a reason to focus on your PASSION…the thing you will work diligently at even for no pay.  The idea being that with the changes in the way the world operates, and even views value on a global scale, that the best way to get successful is through diligent effort.  And if you’re going to put the time in, it might as well be something you enjoy.

Makes complete sense to me, although I’m nuts by most linear thinker’s accounts.  I mean when the US Dollar was dropping like a stone my habit was to buy as much as I could (I live in Canada, but have dual citizenship…).  When the Canadian dollar was on par with the US, I filled my boots as best I could…that’s a 20% return on investment today.   Now the only reason that was ‘passionate’ to me is because I go to conferences in the US a few times a year.  (In fact I’ll be heading off to Launch Tree in a couple of weeks…so email me if you’re going!) I figured I’d rather have the cash available when it was cheap, and I’ve seen the rise and fall of the US dollar a bunch of times so had little doubt it would turn out in my favor.

The economic ‘Crisis’ is actually an appropriate term.  The Greek root of the word means ‘Testing Time‘…remember I said to TEST EVERYTHING

When stock markets crash, blind investors lose their shirts, smart investors build fortunes.  Same goes for marketing.  Adobe became a GIANT the last time the economy took a downturn and their competitors slashed their marketing budgets.  They saw a hole…and filled it, buying up frightened competitors and creating an empire.  Smart.

So if you’ve been ‘downsized’, ‘rightsized’, ‘outsized’ or ‘any-other-sized’ you can come up with take the time to ask yourself that first magical problem solving question.

“What’s GREAT about this problem?” Tony Robbins

When you come up with a solid answer focus on it with all your might and I’ll bet that you’ll look back one day VERY grateful for the opportunity this “Life Test” provided you.

I know I am…every day.

So get busy!

Phil Hughes

I'm eager to hear your comments...