We all daydream once in awhile.  As I was navigating my way through traffic today, I was thinking about a time in the not so distant past.  I was remembering a late Friday afternoon.   I had just received my performance review, and although the company had a 5% limit on annual raises, I was told that I would get a 10% raise because a project I initiated resulted in a double digit increase in company sales.  

   On the drive home that day I was listening to the radio.  It was time for the daily stock watch.  I smiled as I heard that the company stock I invested in had another significant increase.  It was a period of prosperity;   it seemed like prosperity bubble kept going up and the ceiling was yet to be found.

   That weekend, my wife and I took our daughter to the mall and treated her to some stuffed animals at Build-a Bear…

I had some apprehension about going as it was usually about a 30 minute wait to get into the store.  The expressions on all the happy children quickly changed my mind, and I did not mind waiting the half hour on a huge line to get into the store.  Later, my wife and I went out to dinner.  We generally tried to be frugal, but we felt we both had much to celebrate.  We were proud of our accomplishments, both in the business world and in our personal lives.  As we were driving home from dinner that night, I turned on the car radio.  I remember hearing that our outgoing US president, in an effort to keep the price of gas under $2.00 per gallon, released fuel for commercial use that was normally reserved for the military.

   A police siren jolted me back to reality.  The police car passed my vehicle as if it were standing still.  I sadly thought about how the price of gas increased from $1.50 a gallon to as much as $5.00 a gallon or higher in some areas of the US.  What concerned me more was that in the first part of the 21^st century, we had a president who did not seem to care about the effect gas prices were having on the US economy.  The seeds of recession were being planted.

   Inevitably, we were racing towards the worst recession since the Great Depression of the previous century.  Slowly, but surely, the idealism that prevailed at the close of the 20^th century disappeared; it was replaced with cynicism and skepticism.

    It started with terrorist attacks, but it did not end there.  The opening years of the 21^st century were unique in that there was hardly any other time in US history where this country had been shaken by so many scandals.  It started with Enron, and continued with World-Com, Global Crossing, Tyco, Imclone and AIG just to name a few.  These scandals certainly took the wind out of the sails of prosperity we enjoyed in the closing years of the 20^th century.

   We also had plenty of disasters in the last several years, both natural and manmade.  Before the recent Gulf oil spill, we had the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian Tsunami, and the Swine Flu pandemic. Unfortunately, too many people have also forgotten the space shuttle Columbia crash, which occurred in 2003.

   I remember a party I attended in early 2008. I spoke with one of my friends.  He was clearly upset.  “The company used to reward me for making the right decisions”, he said.  “One of my salesmen gave me a forecast that did not make sense.  He told me that if we rushed mass production of our top of the line product, he could sell over a thousand units to a top distributor.  I knew that it would kill the company if we could not sell those units, so I reduced his forecast.  The salesman, infuriated, complained to top management.  Top management overruled my decision and I was strictly disciplined. I narrowly escaped termination.  The company went full steam ahead with the salesman’s plan.  Just as production was finished, the salesman’s distributor went out of business, and we were saddled with excessive inventory. In the end I lost my job anyway.  I just don’t understand what is going on wrong with businesses today!”

  My friend was one of the first victims of what we now call “The Great Recession.”  Sadly, this recession is still a part of our lives.  Last weekend I had to buy some clothes at the mall.  As I passed by the Build a Bear, I noticed that the store was virtually empty, except for a small handful of clerks and cashiers.  I shook my head as I remembered a time when business was booming everywhere and everyone seemed much happier.

   I find myself wondering if we could ever re-discover the greatness and prosperity we once had.  Perhaps one of the things that made our nation great was that we were not afraid to take chances as long as there was a reasonable chance for a successful outcome.  It seems to me that we have suddenly become afraid of taking chances; all too often we take the safe road instead of the challenging one.  We need to lose the fear of failure, and realize that one of the reasons why we exist as a country was because in 1776, we took a chance when the odds were against us.  That effort resulted in a country that served as a model of freedom and prosperity for the rest of the world.

   Until next time, I wish you all Good Hunting.

-By Howard K. Young, Contributing Writer & Member of The 405 Club.

View all of Howard’s posts here.