DROdio

A Sanctuary for Founders and Entrepreneurs

hide

Read Next

Musings on Fear and Expectations

I may be one of the few people who would argue that much of the world revolves around fear and expectations, but let me try to present the argument to you.

First, the part on fear.

Fear plays a major, major role in all of our lives.  In fact, it's kind of like an invisible friend that follows you around wherever you go.  Every single decision you make has some element of fear attached to it.  When I say that, I mean that fear played some part in the decision making process.  While that may not be a huge deal, the huge deal is that we rarely acknowledge its participation in the decision making process.

Fear is like gravity.  It's always there, and we get used to it.  Fear sometimes spurs people into action, and other times withholds people from acting.

Like I said, every decision we make has an element of "fearsomeness" consideration. Do you turn left on the yellow light or wait?  What if a police man sees you?  What if you get hit?  But what if the car behind you thinks you're going to pull through the light and they hit you from behind?   All elements of fear.  That's an easy example, but what about the more subtle ways fear affects us. Some people grow up with parents that tell them 'you can be anything you want to be.'  Others have parents who say 'you have to be a doctor (or lawyer or XYZ) to carry on the family tradition.'  The fear that the child won't honor the heritage of the family dictates that whole person's life.  Imagine!  One simple emotion dictating a person's entire life.  If that's not deep-in-your-gut, mind blowingly significant I don't know what is.  And few people face their fears!  Instead we mask fear by other terms.  "She's just shy"  or "I'm just not good at [insert skill]."  For example, being a telesales representative is not an easy job.  I've rarely seen fear show its face so clearly as when you put a phone in front of someone and ask them to start cold-calling.  Few people can stand up to the constant rejection.   Oh, and how about public speaking?  How many people would rather die than speak in front of an audience (literally - studies show many people  would rather die!).

The Banking Crisis, by NPR

Here's an amazingly succinct guide by NPR about the "bad banks" and what it all means.

It's really, really scary.Especially scary is this graph, showing "twin peaks" - a ratio of consumer debt to GDP, which historically has been 50%, but has recently reached 100% (over 13 trillion dollars).  And ready for the really scary part?  The last time the ratio hit 100% was 1929.

Here's a great blog posting discussing this chart.

And on the topic of great NPR stories, here's a related one I wrote about recently about understanding the loan mess from Wall Street's perspective

So what does this all mean?  Well, as scary as it is, being the consummate entrepreneur, I think it's a great time to start a business, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.  By "great" I mean there are certain advantages.  It's a terrible time to be looking for funding, so the business has to have solid fundamentals, i.e., actual customers willing to pay.  But top talent is much more available, and clients are willing to make deals they wouldn't touch in better economic climates, like revenue sharing deals for example, that should prove valuable when the economy recovers.  I have no illusions, it will probably be 5 to 10 years before that happens, but I'm in the long-term value creation business.

Here's an amazingly succinct guide by NPR about the "bad banks" and what it all means. It's really, really scary.Especially scary is this graph, showing "twin peaks" - a ratio of consumer debt to GDP, which historically has been 50%, but has recently reached 100% (over 13 trillion dollars).  And ready for the really scary part?  The last time the ratio hit 100% was 1929. Here's a great blog posting discussing this chart. And on the topic of great NPR stories, here's a related one I wrote about recently about understanding the loan mess from Wall Street's perspective So what does this all mean?  Well, as scary as it is, being the consummate entrepreneur, I think it's a great time to start a business, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.  By "great" I mean there are certain advantages.  It's a terrible time to be looking for funding, so the business has to have solid fundamentals, i.e., actual customers willing to pay.  But top talent is much more available, and clients are willing to make deals they wouldn't touch in better economic climates, like revenue sharing deals for example, that should prove valuable when the economy recovers.  I have no illusions, it will probably be 5 to 10 years before that happens, but I'm in the long-term value creation business. Also, my past startup, DROdio Real Estate, has had to adapt.  It has gotten really good at selling bank owned properties, and is actually doing very well in that business.  Also, there are more people kicking the tires, so the company's ability to turn tire kickers into buyers by not being pushy, using blogs to educate, and technology tools to help buyers look with no pressure, has proven a very good approach. But as Jack Welch famously said, we all have to "accept reality as it is, not as it was, or how we wish it would be."  Go listen to that NPR 'bad bank' piece and let me know what your thoughts are, I'd love to hear them.

Guest hasn't filled out their bio yet.
Guest
0
Vote
Advanced options  
, at :
Guest hasn't filled out their bio yet.
Guest
0
Vote
Advanced options  
, at :
Close