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The Forbes Factor

Guest post by: Jim Stovall

Article Overview: This past week, I had several speaking engagements and a broadcast event on the East Coast. My travels ended up in New York City, and as I always do when I have extra time in The Big Apple, I called to see if my friend and colleague Steve Forbes had a few minutes to spare. Mr. Forbes' staff graciously adjusted his schedule so we could spend some time together. After discussions of our individual books and businesses, the talk, as it often does, turned to the economy. Steve Forbes is a great person to talk to if you want to rise above the minute-by-minute gloom and doom predictions from the media and get an overall perspective on the economy and the opportunities that lie before us.

The Forbes Factor

This past week, I had several speaking engagements and a broadcast event on the East Coast. My travels ended up in New York City, and as I always do when I have extra time in The Big Apple, I called to see if my friend and colleague Steve Forbes had a few minutes to spare. Mr. Forbes' staff graciously adjusted his schedule so we could spend some time together.

After discussions of our individual books and businesses, the talk, as it often does, turned to the economy. Steve Forbes is a great person to talk to if you want to rise above the minute-by-minute gloom and doom predictions from the media and get an overall perspective on the economy and the opportunities that lie before us.

While short-term conditions have been a bit rocky of late, as usual, Steve Forbes' long-term outlook is all positive. In his most recent book How Capitalism Will Save Us, Mr. Forbes gives us a lesson in history and economics that will convince the most skeptical among us that the system works, and opportunities abound around every corner.

It is okay to observe short-term trends and even react to them when appropriate; however, changing your long-term strategy based on short term events is almost always a mistake.

As the summer approaches in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, many people have already set their thermostats on their air conditioners for the season. This is a great long-term strategy if you live in our part of the country; however, this past week, we had a bit of a cold snap, and many of us had to shift back to heat for a few days. This was a good short-term strategy, but anyone who panicked and decided that they would abandon the air conditioning strategy this year because conditions had turned cold for a few days is going to suffer through a miserable three or four months.

On those cold mornings, it might have been easy to become fooled into thinking that we had fallen victim to some kind of bazaar global climate change or an oncoming ice age; but if you take the Steve Forbes approach that involves a quick step back and realistic look at history as well as the conditions beyond today, you would realize that air conditioning will continue to be a part of our long-term strategy here in the southwest.

Business, investing, and the economy are not a sprint. They are a long-term marathon. This marathon is run over a series of days, months, years, and even decades. A few bumps in the road should not divert us from our long-term goal or our strategy to get from here to there. We need to monitor the next step so that we don't trip and fall, but we can never take our mind and focus away from the long-term finish line and our race strategy.

As you go through your day today, remember that, in spite of a few bumps in the road, our system provides a superhighway for anyone that maintains long-term vision.

Today's the day!

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Article Tags: economy, investing, Jim Stovall, Steve Forbes



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