Double Dip or Double Digit Growth: Your Choice
The media over the recent weeks has been full of talk, of speculation, of prediction of a “Double Dip Recession”. Even respectable broadsheets jumped on board with doom mongering headlines such as “Fears over a double dip as families face big squeeze” (The Times 26 January). Our very own Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, a man of considerable standing, stated in a speech on 25th January that workers were in the midst of the sharpest fall in their real wages since the 1920s.
I have a simple question for you? When you read headlines like that, when you heard radio and TV news sound bites to the same effect, how did it make you feel? Did it make you feel that you wanted to go ahead and buy that new sofa, new TV, redecorate, book a holiday or change your car? Did it make you feel confident in your financial future?
Now I am not advocating that we should all spend, spend, spend. The point I am making is a well know point that a key driver of economic performance is market sentiment i.e. consumer confidence, business leader confidence, investor confidence.
If you were to delve deeper into some of the papers you would have got a more balanced view. “The Times” profiled several business leaders view. Many of those interviewed had a balanced view, stating that one key reason that the economic data for the last quarter of 2010 was lower than expected was because of all the snow we had in December. There was even commentary about trends and that in context of other nations in Europe we, in the UK, are actually doing comparatively well. Delving deeper into the London Evening Standard on 26th January there was commentary from Anthony Hilton “The recovery is well under way, but only if we keep out nerve”.
Here’s the thing: In a fast paced society where we are overloaded with data, with bits of information competing for our attention, we have to scan things. We unconsciously search for data that support a view that we have or may be (un) consciously forming. We search for data to support that hypothesis. Many will have only heard the sound bites of doom and gloom. Few will have looked deeper, for a more balanced view, for the hope, for the underlying reality.
By the way, my almost daily conversation with Entrepreneurs, with business leaders, with business men and women that deal daily with many more businesses, presents a very different picture. These conversations present a picture of optimism, of confidence about business growth. More than a few businesses are reporting that 2010 was a good year for them and they are confident that 2011 will continue that trend. In fact in a recent survey conducted by a leading high street bank of its business customers found that 60% of the customer base that participated in the survey stated that they were either confident or very confident about their business/ economic outlook for 2011…….but how many people in the greater UK population hear that message?
By consuming the media diet of predictions of double dips, does that make you feel confident in your own financial future? In many cases, not. What is the result? A self fulfilling prophecy.
Boards of Directors sit down to decide whether to expand their business, to invest in building new premises and employment. They look at the market data in front of them and yet they can’t get out of their minds the sound bites they consumed on the way to work that morning and decide not to go ahead with those plans. Thereby effecting real jobs in the construction sector, not employing the people they would have in their own business. The family at home decides that they will make do with their dilapidated kitchen, their old car or without a family holiday. Thereby effecting real revenues and jobs in the those respective businesses that would have been the beneficiary of their spend. Lets keep in mind that these people had the ability to spend on any of these ‘investment’ decisions but chose not to given the “state of the economy”. I know you see the pattern. One of self fulfilling prophecy.
I am not disputing that there are many suffering from unemployment or under threat of loosing their drop and the economic situation for them personally is not good. It is very real for them.
What I am talking about is the power of mindset, is the pervasive mindset of a nation. In the words of Henry Ford “Whether you believe you can or you cannot, you are right’.
Any of us that have an audience for our words, through whatever media, have a responsibility. A responsibility to be aware of the impact they have on others and like dropping a pebble in a pond, we have to be aware of the “ripple effect” of those words, of the “ripple effect” on real life earnings and ability to spend.
If a loved one, god forbid, was really ill. What would you do? Tell them the worst case scenario….. or give them hope, give them a reason to fight, take them by the hand and with your words, with your actions ‘will’ them back to health?
Of course you give them hope. It is human nature. It is also human nature to survive in spite of the odds, it is human nature to find ways around a problem. Mother natures way is to grow.
So I would like to offer you an “alternative reality”. One that you might not sign up to straight away but one that gives hope and one that, if you go with me, can and does deliver double digit growth.
Pause for a moment and think back to times in your life when you were doubting of your abilities, when you were fearful of the worst case scenario so much so that you kept yourself awake at night, of times when you were worried what if? What was the impact of your mind being full of such thoughts? Did you feel confident? Did you perform at your best? Did you feel energized? I doubt it.
Let’s choose a different path now. Think about times when you felt upbeat, when you were confident in your preparation and your abilities, when you actually believed in yourself. How different did things pan out in those situations? Better? Much better? I think so.
In every economic downturn there is always a business that outperforms the market / the other companies in any particular sector. The question is which path are you going to choose? Are you going to allow yourself to be fed a fast food diet of doom and gloom or are you going to choose the path of hope?
I am not a peddler of “airy fairy” empty statements. I do not believe life is all about ‘rose coloured spectacles’. No. Instead I evoke the basic human fighting spirit, the basic survival instinct. I harness that and bolster it with skills and capability that delivers. Down to earth business strategies that deliver results. Results that have transformed the ‘reality’ of some of my clients so that they are now experiencing double digit growth.
Which path are you going to choose?
Top find out about the “Entrepreneur Accelerator Workshop I am running on 3rd March near Knutsford (UK) then check out:
5 Responses to Double Dip or Double Digit Growth: Your Choice
And I thought I was the sensible one. Thanks for setting me srtagiht.
Alright ailrght alright that’s exactly what I needed!
i love your blog, i have it in my rss reader and always like new things coming up from it.
A really good asnewr, full of rationality!
Ecoonimes are in dire straits, but I can count on this!