Tweet

Finding Inspiration In A Tough Economy

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: If you feel down about the current state of affairs, look around your local community and find the ordinary people who are still doing extraordinary things. Get to know them. Find out the "why" behind what they're doing... it'll inspire you....

Finding Inspiration In A Tough Economy

Ordinary People Are Doing Extraordinary Things The bad news is that 89% of Americans believe the economy is in dismal shape, according to a study released last week. Inflation is high, gas costs too much, and real unemployment numbers suggest that close to a fifth of the U.S. workers who want a job don't have one. It's hard to find inspiration in a tough economy like this, and without inspiration, it's tough to be an inspirational leader.

But if you look, you can find it. Be aware, of course, that the self-proclaimed "leaders of public opinion in America (government, the media, the entertainment industry, labor unions, and academe) would like you to be "inspired" by what the government is doing. But no one is finding inspiration in government these days, especially in the federal government.

There's a growing awareness that it will not be the government, but rank-and-file entrepreneurs and risk-takers, who eventually lead us out of the Greatest Depression. Experts say things are going to get much worse before they get better, and that the coming storm will make the "Great" Depression of the 1930s seem like good times. But eventually, like a flu-bug working its way through your body, the "progressive" statism perpetrated by the above-named institutions will run its course, and leave ordinary people to rebuild the free-market society of individual liberty that's made America great. And, as with every true recovery, the country will bounce back stronger than ever before.

If you feel down about the current state of affairs, look around your local community and find the ordinary people who are still doing extraordinary things. Get to know them. Find out the "why" behind what they're doing... it'll inspire you.

In our little Colorado town, two local girls just won the highest honor you can get as a Girl Scout, for their amazingly-ambitious (and time-consuming) projects to help young girls develop self-esteem and to make sure poor kids get birthday presents in this community. They say they did it because they each saw a need and, tough though it might be, they saw a way the need could be met.

That's EXACTLY what true entrepreneurs do. These young women will make fantastic business owners someday, if that's their calling.

As I've mentioned before, I see two types of people operating out there. Most folks these days, unfortunately, are not Entrepreneurs. They've Victims, at least as far as their actions would demonstrate. They don't find a way to fill a need... they allow themselves to become trapped in hopelessness, and they wait for someone else to meet their needs. And in many ways, the government (and its cheerleaders in the other institutions mentioned above) fosters this ill spirit of victimhood. They seem to want more people relying on the government for more and more of their livelihood. If you think about it, government grows when more people give up... when more people stand up, the government shrinks, but the economy (and the society) grows by leaps and bounds.

Find inspiration. Lead others to it. It's still out there, and you'll find it in the countless stories of brave ordinary people who refuse to give up. Sure, there's a storm coming. But thankfully, there are folks out there right now who are building the nation's capacity to weather whatever those dark clouds on the horizon bring.

Related Articles
  A Tough Economy Can be Good for Your Career
  Don't Be Defeated By Inaction
  Finding Inspiration
  What To Do When You're Lacking Inspiration
  Newsworthy Trends in Franchising
  Why Leaders Need to Read the News
  Focus On Where You Want To Go, Not The Wall!
  Inspired Women Entrepreneurs Achieve Success
  Why A Starting A New Business Is A Great Idea in This Great Recession
  Will You Choose Sales Success or Sales Distress?
  Hiring is tough!
  Appreciate Your Own Best Strengths
  Successful Entrepreneurs Stay Inspired
  Renew Your Optimism, Renew Your Inspiration
  Get Outside Before The Snow Flies
  There's A Reason Holidays Are For Kids
  Finding inspiration when the well runs dry
  What A Beautiful Year
  Great Leadership Requires Inspiration, IV
  Get Inspired: Silence Your Cell Phone

Article Tags: entrepreneurship, health wealth and happiness, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility



Related Forum Posts
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Nov 5, 2010 - Tough to say Yinka - I'm usually working about 25 hours per week - a lot of that is online. For most of these articles I pick them up from my RSS feeds, recommendations from friends, or Twitter posts. I'll do a quick skim of the article and if it looks interesting I'll save it for later to read.
Re: Quote of the Day - ?"Just because you come up against a wall - I love this. Thanks Evan for posting. I love this saying also. "Tough times never last, but tough people do."
Re: Kevin. What happened to all others moderators? - Thanks Kevin for your reply, I will be fulfilling my obligation of a moderator from now on. I was going through some rough times in the past months, that was why I was not consistent. Thank God the rough times is gone and i am back. Tough times never last but tough people last.
Describe Your Inspiration/Motivation - I'd like to open up discussion with the group to identify how us entrepreneurs keep you goals insight without loosing Inspiration for what got you going initially. Being an Entrepreneur can be a lonely road at times and I'd like to dig up and have people describe the fire they hold inside. I'm hoping that through this exercise I can acknowledge and become aware of my fire that I'm having trouble verbalizing.
Dramatized the product - Tough one... It's going to have t be a mix of different media. 1. Testimonials of current owners of the product and how it's helped them. This can be done thru Video and print 2. Somehow I believe there will have to be Video of it being "dramatized" 3. People of influence will have to support or sponsor the product. just some that came to mind..


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why SEO is important for your online success

Providing Feedback

Designing Employee-Enhancing Training Programs

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.