Taking a look at the newsstand lately, it may seem as if the covers of
major periodicals are not - pardon the pun - on the same page. Only a
week or two after Newsweek proclaimed "The Recession is Over," Business Week has followed with "The Case for Optimism." Similar sure,
but whereas Newsweek certainly IS being optimistic, I think Business Week
has a great point for entrepreneurs: "Sure, it has been a harrowing
storm. And now is no time to discount the dangers that still exist. But
opening your mind to optimism can help you seize the opportunities
ahead."
While it can be tempting (and perhaps safer) to hang back and wait out
the recession before making any big business plans, Business Week's Peter
Coy argues that now is the perfect time to forge ahead. "Practical
people should open their minds to the opportunities to be seized just as
much as to the dangers to be dodged," he writes.
The online version even has a short slideshow detailing the signs of life for business owners.
In setting the stage for his "Case for Optimism," Coy brings up the following problems:
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The loss of (just) a quarter-million jobs in July was greeted as good news.
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Long-term unemployment and foreclosures continue to mount.
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This is the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.
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Health-care costs are out of control and an aging population around the globe is driving government spending through the roof.
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Scientists say we need an expensive crash program to fight global warming or we'll incinerate ourselves.
With stuff like this going on every day, every WHERE, perhaps it's easy
to side with the 53% of Americans from a recent Gallup poll that think
the U.S. economic outlook is getting WORSE.
Things are always darkest before the dawn, and the two points Coy brings up for cautious optimism support that thinking:
1.) "Recessions such as this one... set the stage for future growth. As
economist Joseph A. Schumpeter wrote in 1942, "creative destruction"
shakes loose people from old, dying businesses and forces them to figure
out new ways to be useful." Green-collar jobs, anyone?
2.) "Ingenuity is addictive. Equipping one or two billion more of the
world's people with higher education and better technology... has
increased humanity's ability to solve hard problems. The next
world-changing breakthrough may come from China, or India, or Eastern
Europe."
And it's in that spirit that I'll be operating for the next few months -
as I encourage you to do as well, if possible - as we lead up to Global
Entrepreneurship Week. I blogged this past summer about getting to see
first-hand entrepreneurship taking place in Morocco, and this fall is
certain to be an exciting time in the entrepreneurship arena as well. In
the months and weeks since then, I've seen it from those in the
Mediterranean, Middle East, and all around the world.
The recession's been tough, sure, even grueling at times. It's lasted
longer and hit harder than many thought it would. But entrepreneurs
have been doing their part - and we've been chronicling it here, every
week - so I'm optimistic that the second half of the equation - E=R:
Entrepreneurs = Recovery - will follow in time.