Can it be that long? Here we are, well into the third quarter of 2011 and I’m only now sending out my first piece of the year! One might suppose that I have been busy and they would be correct. In my last posting, in December 2010, I mentioned that my “dance card” was filling up and sure enough, it was and has been, right up through and continuing in the present. However I do want to update you with my view on the present scene, so here it is.
Currently, money, jobs, debt and budgets are very much in the news. Some would even have you believe that the sky is in imminent danger of falling down. With everything going on, there is the tendency to “do nothing” until whatever storm there is (or is said to be right on the horizon) blows over. I firmly believe that doing nothing is the absolutely worst decision. That will only keep the current scene persisting indefinitely into the future.
Now is the time for action! Whether it is to prepare to make new projects ready for delivery, for when things turn around, or to “clean up,” upgrade and/or modernize existing tooling, machinery or production lines, do it now. Once the cycle turns around and you get busy, you won’t have the time to do this, as you will be way too busy producing, possibly with equipment that is marginal or in need of service that you now do not have time to perform.
I am sure you have heard this before, but, invariably, the majority is always wrong. You know, when everyone knows that a particular action is the right thing to do, or when an investment is a sure thing to buy, that means that the market is at the top and will be turning the other way real soon. Who makes all the money? Not the majority. It is the few who see beyond what is being hyped and take responsibility for and make their own decisions. The only advantage to being in the majority is that you will always have a lot of others with whom to commiserate about your collective “bad luck.”
It has been said that even a poor plan, badly executed is much, much better than no plan at all, or doing nothing at all. It is quite obvious that by doing something you might lose, or, you might win. It should be equally obvious that in doing nothing you will definitely lose. So, you can sit by yourself, alone and hoping, or grab the bull by the horns and handle life, rather than have life handle you. It all comes down to the decision you make, or don’t.
To borrow a phrase from a Hollywood movie, “Choose wisely, grasshopper.”