Recession—or mindset?
by Miki SaxonPost from Leadership Turn Image credit: OiMax
The following story has been told in various incarnations for more than 40 years.
Once upon a time there was a man who ran a hot dog stand. This man ran one of the finest hot dog stands in the whole city and, strangely for a hot dog stand, he even used real meat in his sausages. People came from miles around to get tasty hot dogs that were freely covered in onions and sauces. In fact, the man was so successful that he could afford to send his son to Harvard. His son even went on to finish an MBA.
After graduation the son came back to work with his dad. “Dad”, he said, “based on the current economic statistics, we’re heading for a recession. You’ve got to stop using all that sauce, and you dish out onions as if they were free.”
The father was torn. He’d always been generous to his customers, but his very bright boy didn’t get all that education for nothing. So, reluctantly, he cut back on the sauces and the onions.
His son moved him to buying a cheaper brand of hot dog with a more traditional sawdust ratio. It was just in time, because it turned out his son was right—his business took a real dive.
Tuesday I cited statistics compiled by Business Week that showed that the expansion that’s ending did not, in fact, expand much. In fact, of the three worst performing countries, the US loss in terms of world output was more than three times Japan and four-and-a-half times Germany.
So, if we weren’t really growing as we were told, are we really receding as we’re now being told?
Whether The Conference Board’s Consumer Price Index goes up or down, the media spreads the word, people read/hear about it and lemming-like follow in “their” footsteps.
In a comment Tuesday Rob Davison asks, “Is the whole world heading for recession, or is it that we are being told we are heading there, hence we all act accordingly?”
You tell me—how much of the sky that we hear is falling is real and how much is exacerbated by the speed of today’s ubiquitous communications?
Your comments—priceless
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March 27th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Miki, I was just talking about this topic with a couple of friends. Last week, one of them heard one of the three big network news programs talk about how we could be heading towards another Great Depression.
Why do people just believe what they’re told? I am a firm believer that the media tells us what to believe. Someone (maybe “the man”) decides what they want us to believe. And our actions follow our beliefs. It’s scary.
And it’s not just the news. The church can have this power. And so can the guy across the street or the person in the cubicle next to us. People are easily led somewhere.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Our modern economy is arbitrary, so I’d say it’s as much mindset as it is anything else.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Casey, Short answer—people are lazy.
Long answer—it’s far easier to relinquish control and believe your church, newscasts, pundits of all kinds, blogs, etc., than it is to think and reason for yourself. Hey, that takes time and effort away from important stuff like watching TV, surfing, ad playing video games.
Going along with the crowd is a variation of keeping up with the Joneses—which is what got most people in trouble on the first place:)
People and most of our edifices run on a simple I/O relatonship.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Luke, We all seem to agree and that begs the question: If it’s mindset can we think ourselves out of it? And if so, how do we go about it?
March 29th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Very interesting post and perspective. I am a firm believer that there is power in words that we speak about ourselves, our life, our present and our future. If I didn’t know this back in 1995, the lesson was brought home, when my Father died in May of 1995. When my mom was going through his stuff, she stopped to read his yearbook. His quote way back when he was a senior in high school was “staying alive until ’95″. That was a powerful lesson for me.
The unfortunate thing is that we as people don’t realize that we can create our world by the words we speak and what we believe. Self-fulfilling prophesy. It is a powerful thing.
Miki I disagree with you that people are lazy. People are tired, frustrated, and hopeful that life could one day be different. What people miss is that the ability to see life different begins within them. Rather than looking within, we look outside of ourself and we look to who we perceive is successful or powerful and surely they have it all figured out. Not so, but that is typically how we as people behave. Soooo, are we in recession? I refer you back to the hotdog stand you wrote about. It all depends on who you choose to listen to. If the man had enough conviction to trust himself rather than his son, I suspect he would still be as successful as ever.
Darlene
Interview Guru
http://www.interviewchatter.com
March 29th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Darlene, People may be all the things you mention, but I still think lazy plays a role in their willingness to turn the responsibility over to outside forces— whether it’s media, religion, family or friends—it’s a lot easier to follow others than to blaze our own path.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:50 am
[...] Leadership Turn, Miki wonders how real the recession is considering that the numbers don’t support the supposed expansion preceding [...]