I speak with hundreds of people every year. Most are trying to figure out where their particular cog fits into the greater, global, capitalist machine. 

Some people seek me out to share their ideas and business plans, others ask the kind of questions that people always ask someone who served on a business school faculty. Many have already achieved financial success, others are just starting out.

I take these calls in part because they offer me the opportunity to ask a lot of questions to a widely disparate group of people. I get to consider what is going on in the world from many different perspectives. 

Studs Terkel

The result is a Studs Terkel view of the global marketplace.  In Working, Terkel told the stories of various working individuals to paint a picture of the complex relationships that people have with their jobs and with their employers.

Every year I get to hear the stories told by hundreds of business owners and executives, founders of start-ups and investors of all sizes. No two stories are exactly alike.

What are they saying now? As always people see what they want to see. 

There should be a lot of fear, doubt and hesitancy when a pandemic of this magnitude slows the markets so quickly, especially when so much of economic activity has simply been turned off. There are clearly a great many people who are suffering from the effects of the virus if not the virus itself.

No one should minimize the overall economic effects. A great many businesses will go out of business. A great many of the people who are now unemployed will never be rehired to the same job.

Overall, most of the people with whom I am speaking are realists and therefore optimistic.  Rational people understand that if they stay indoors they, and their family members are not likely to contract the virus or die from it. Rational people count their blessings at times like this.

Some people are complaining that working from home is too difficult because their kids are under foot or need their attention.  If you can’t make your kids understand that you need some “alone time” to get your work done, that is on you, not them. 

I wrote my first book after my kids went to bed, often working between midnight and 3AM.  Why? Because I wanted to write a book and I knew I would not get it done if I made excuses.

There are a lot of people sitting at home binge watching this or that which is fine. There are also people who are taking courses online, brushing up on accounting or marketing because when this is over, they want to start a business or get a better job. 

I got a packaged delivered yesterday and asked the delivery man how things were going. He replied over his shoulder that he had been laid off and very happy to have this new job. In his mind, despite being laid off and earning less, his glass was half full.  

You cannot turn on the TV without seeing the incredible jobs being done by doctors, nurses and first responders. They are true heroes.

But we also need to recognize the 20 something working as a cashier in the local market. She told me that all her regular customers are like family.  She has no idea why the market has no eggs as chickens are obviously still laying them. But she has a kind, uplifting word for everyone who passes through her line. “This will be over soon” she told me, “and then we will see what those chickens were up to.”      

Make no mistake, this will end.  Your life, after it is over, will largely depend upon how you act now.

I got a call this week from a former client, a chef who I helped to raise the money for his restaurant a few years back, He wanted the name of a good bankruptcy lawyer because he knows he is not going to be able to re-open. A lot of blood, sweat and tears down the drain.

At the same time, he asked me to help him start raising funds for the new restaurant he wants to open next year, That is the thing about Americans, when the shit knocks us on our ass, we get up, dust ourselves off and keep going.

He truly feels badly for the wait staff and kitchen crew he just laid off.  But he also understands that they got paid from the first day the restaurant was open. It took a year until he could draw his first check. That is the nature of capitalism. Business owners take the risks that create the jobs for others.

Worker Bees

I read an opinion piece this week end by a disgruntled “influencer“ who was up in arms that the government was bailing out banks and profiteers and not the poor, worker bees who actually do the work.  These people, he reminded us, live paycheck to paycheck and have no savings.

He is certainly correct about that, but that is not the banks’ fault. They are always happy to open a small savings accounts.  It is up to the worker bees to spend a little less and save a little more. That advice has been around since I was in grade school.

I feel really bad for the author who apparently feels helpless because nothing bad has ever happened in his lifetime. I watched friends pulled into war, to die in the jungle. Shit happens and it happens to every generation.

I spent 5 months living on the cancer floor of a major hospital. When this passes, visit the cancer patients in your local hospital, many have no visitors. If there was ever a time to count all your blessings, this is it.

The most important lesson I learned from my experience with cancer is that the only thing that you can do in life is to play the hand you are dealt. If you are afraid or angry right now well that too, is on you. 

If you do nothing else in the next few weeks you can help out your neighbors. I don’t have to tell you why you should do that, you all went to Sunday school. You will be amazed how helping others will help you realize how fortunate you are.

And please ignore the angry political types of all persuasions on TV who are jumping up and down screaming and assigning blame to others. If this group would just sit down and shut the hell up they might be pleasantly surprised to see all the decent people around the US who are quietly giving each other a helping hand. 

That is what is really going on.

If you’d like to discuss this or anything related, then please contact me directly HERE

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