Seeing Things "Half Full" is More Important Than Ever!

Now more than ever we need to be looking at the glass as half full.

I know that I have been rather gloomy of late.  I have been ranting and raving about the crippling effect that higher taxes, increased regulation, and eroding property rights will have on America's entrepreneurs.

I do so not because of a political agenda on my part.  I started blasting the previous President's policies by the early part of his second term when he took a dramatic swing toward increased government.  I let others deal with the world of politics. 

But I do look at public policy from the lens of small business owners.  Why?  Well, three reasons.  First, I was one for a long time.  So is my father.  One of my brothers is an independent business person and another one of them works for a small business.  So it is very personal to me.  I know first hand what errant policy does to our businesses and our business psyche.

Another reason for my attention to policy is that there seems to be a lack of attention to the true impact of small business in the economy.  More than in the past there is a least some passing recognition in the media and by politicians, but it seems to be little more than lip service by the media and both of the major political parties.

Finally, when they do pay attention, it is very clear that they do not understand small business.  While corporate America has seemed to find its success through rent seeking and buying political favor, small business is part of a purely competitive economy.  Entrepreneurs thrive best when left on their own in a free market.  It does not mean they all make it.  But with proper preparation and as little intervention as possible from well-meaning and power-seeking governmental folks alike, most do quite well.  And through their success, we all do well.

So time to try and look at the half full side of things.  Entrepreneurs continue to survive and thrive in spite of all that is against them right now economically and in terms of the policies being enacted in Washington.

One of my readers, Mary Anne Thomas from Black Mountain, NC sent along a link to an opinion piece she wrote for her local paper the Black Mountain News.  She and her husband Bob have developed a system to keep looking at the half full side of things.  They are convinced that such positive thinking has real power.  Here is part of what she said:

If only we could align with good news all the time.

But how, when in our political and private discussions, we put down our government, we put down our society, and we put down each other? We're drowning in negativity.

Fortunately, there is a way to turn away from bad news long enough to create some good news. Someone in our town has done it, and he can show us how to do it.

It's my husband, Bob Thomas, a well-known golf author. Four years ago, he started a company to sell golf books as tournament gifts. When news of the crisis broke, his sales completely stopped. Our income was imperiled. He had to turn things around, and fast, and he did.

He used a deceptively simple technique that I developed years ago, called a Good News Board. On a Good News Board - which is a dry erase board hung in a common but visible spot, like the hallway heading into the break room - workers list good news as it happens in a company. It's infectious.

They are not alone.  For example, my friend Bill Evans owner of Evans Glass Company has refused to let the scoundrels and the generally bad news get him down.  When the economy first tanked and the political tide swung into an anti-capitalist fever, he never lost faith in his ability to endure.  He is convinced that his positive thinking has played a large part in the continued success of his business.

We need to focus on success stories.  Belmont alumnus Andy Tabar founder of Bizooki sent me this uplifting story from cleveland.com.  Northern Ohio is having horrible economic times right now, but even in the middle of all the bad economic news there is good news:

Mike and Pete Mitchell never planned on getting into the ice cream business.

Other than having a freezer full of ice cream in their University Heights home, nothing in their childhood suggested this is what they would do for a living.

But 10 years after opening their first store in Westlake, the two have managed to turn their passion for creamy ice cream into a four-store Mitchell's Homemade Ice Cream operation whose sales soared 12 percent in 2009 in the midst of a brutal recession, doubling the 6-percent sales increase they'd had the year before.

They are hoping to open two more stores in Northeast Ohio later this year.

So here is my final resolution for 2010.  I am going to continue to rant and rave about those policies that are detrimental to entrepreneurship, but I will also highlight more about why it is so important to do so.  I will intentionally keep a focus clearly on the "half full" side of things by looking at small business heroes in this troubled economy.

In fact, with this post I inaugurate a new category at the EM dedicated to helping us all keep our heads high and or spirits up:  "The Glass is Half Full".