Category: Business & Entrepreneurship

Have you noticed that when people believe they’re going to lose something they often hold on to it even more strongly?  When people get worried, they freeze up.  When they get worried about the economy, they freeze their buying and spending, and many of them literally try to hide away – they hide themselves and they hide their money.

What we often forget is that money, itself, is an illusion – a convenient illusion, but an illusion none the less.  It only has value because we as a society agree that it has value as a means of exchange.  I exchange my time and efforts for this value (money), and you in turn accept that value (money) in exchange for the goods I wish to purchase from you.  It’s sure a lot easier than me trying to find someone who is willing to take the basket of tomatoes I have grown in exchange for a cell phone!  So it’s a convenient agreement.

When people get scared they try to hoard their money in an attempt to ensure it keeps its value.  Unfortunately, money only maintains its value when it’s being circulated.  When people hoard anything, it shrinks, closes down, and ultimately becomes obsolete.  Remember those tomatoes, if I tried to hoard them they would eventually rot and become useless to me.

On the other hand, when people invest, then things begin to expand.  When they expand their thinking or their efforts, things grow.  When things grow, they become healthy.

Which is not to say that I think we should all go out and spend.  Even though spending does put money into the economy temporarily, spending is different from investing.  Investing involves looking at fundamentals – looking for value and supplying the life blood of time, money or energy that allows an idea or a well-run company to survive, grow and ultimately thrive.

The stock market is simply an extension of our agreement of value.  And, unfortunately, the stock market is all too often swayed by the perception of the investors.  Take a look at how the market swings during times of turmoil.  The fundamentals of the companies whose stock is publicly traded do not change on a daily basis, yet the stock market can jump dramatically one way or the other, depending on the confidence or sentiment of the people who are trading the stock of those companies.  That’s why the smart investment brokers recommend long term investing over day trading.  Because over time, the market always comes back.

People have gotten wealthy at all times and in all economies.  There have been people at all times and in all economies who have gotten poor.  And there have always been people who have promoted doom and gloom.

The news media is having a field day with the recent economic shifts.  They are notoriously consistent when it comes to bad news – I often think of them in the same way as I do the office gossip – they can’t wait to talk about the awfuls (and, it sells a LOT of newspapers!).  Unfortunately, in times like this it simply feeds the fear.

I was talking to the husband last night about how this reminds me of the dotcom bubble – this is the financial/housing bubble – people thinking that bad investments would never catch up with them.  Markets have been cyclical forever, what kind of New Age illogical thinking would make anyone believe that unsupported financial risk doesn’t have a downside?

As painful as this may seem, this kind of event actually has a beneficial side – it’s like cleaning out a festering wound.  The economy couldn’t get healthy again until this was cleaned up.  And just like the dotcom fiasco some years ago, everything will come back again – and in many ways, in much better shape.  We recovered from the dotbomb crisis and we will recover from this mortgage lending crisis.

Which is not to say that I think we should ignore what is happening around us.  That would be New Age unsupported thinking.  What I am suggesting, however, is that we take a larger view and realize this, too, shall pass.  That we look for ways to help expand the economy and our own wealth through investment in what is positive and provides legitimate growth.  That we take a look at what we are doing now that is unintentional, frivolous or just plain stupid, and make appropriate adjustments.

I suggest we look for the positive opportunities that will come out of this.  We can all end up stronger, smarter and in the long run better off, if we remember to keep breathing and to keep moving instead of trying to simply hide away.  This could be a time of unprecedented opportunities if we’re smart and keep our wits.

Thanks to my friend Ed Dale, for providing me a link to this fascinating video with Warren Buffet.  Take the time to listen to what this financial genius has to say.  The video is an hour long, but it is definitely worthwhile! And hopefully you’ll feel just a little bit better.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Warmly,
Katie

Okay, I admit it, I’m guilty. And I need to apologize.

At some point in the past you signed up for my newsletter, expecting to get useful information from me, and probably expecting to hear from me on a somewhat regular basis.

Well, as you know, that hasn’t happened very regularly for some time now.  At best my emails have been sporadic, and as much as I love to pass on great information and links, I have simply been so busy over the past several years that it’s been almost impossible for me to find the time to keep you current on what’s been happening.

So, please accept my apologies for leaving you in the dark. It wasn’t my intention, but as my husband says, “infinite choice, limited time”.  I just kind of ran out of time.

So What Happened?

A few years ago when California was facing the energy crisis my husband faced potential layoff. At that time he asked me to suspend my internet businesses and coaching practice to get a “steady job”. Which meant to go to work for someone else to insure that if he did get laid off we could be “guaranteed” an income. Not my favorite solution, but he’s a Capricorn and security is very important to him (that’s part of why I married him, bless his heart!).

So, even though I had a huge contract about to be finalized, I agreed. (Interesting that the day I started the job was the day the contract was signed. I ended up giving away a substantial part of the business so that I could take the job and help allay my husbands concerns.)

Well, one year started into two, and I decided if I was going to work for someone else, I should get paid closer to what I was really worth, so I changed jobs. This gave me an opportunity to make some other changes and repair some earlier-in-my-career choices, so all-in-all, it was okay.

In the meantime, I had a job where I was commuting 2 hours every day and traveling out of town every 1-2 months. Luckily may husband and I commute part of the way together, but that still doesn’t give me a lot of time to stay in touch with the rest of the world!

The good news is that now, four years later, I am planning to leave “employment” at the end of this year. Which means I will be shifting focus back to my entrepreneurial endeavors.

Although I’ve continued to develop my internet skills in the meantime, let’s face it, the WWW is a far different and more dynamic place than it was 5 years ago when I went “offline”. I’ve been doing my research over the past couple of years, and have some very interesting ideas about revisiting as well as revising what I was doing before I took the offline job.

What Does This Mean For You?

Some of you will decide that my direction isn’t your direction. That’s fine, and we can part as friends, I hope.

Some of you may be intrigued by where I’m going and want to tag along. That’s also fine and I will look to you for ideas and feedback about where you’d like to see me headed.

Some of you may want to lurk in the background for a while. That works for me, too. You can watch and decide for yourself if you want to play.

Whatever happens, I want to thank you for your initial interest, and especially for your support over the years. It has been especially gratifying to know you were along for the ride. I love the interaction and ideas that have come from our partnership, and I look forward to much, much more of it!

I don’t promise to start sending emails every day (heaven forbid!) or even every week. But you should start seeing a few more emails from me. At the moment everything’s a bit nuts at work and I haven’t even hinted to them that I might be thinking of escaping this winter! I do expect to make my final decision by October.

What’s Next….

In the meantime, however, I’m continuing to research the best options and planning to re-institute some of my previous endeavors. For example, I expect to create an updated venue for my women entrepreneurs networking group, and to begin offering a variety of live seminars, as well as teleclasses and radio interviews again.

I am also exploring online and offline promotion, marketing and social media. I have always had a strong focus on communication, and the online video options now available open up a whole new world in multi-media online training, too.

But, even my more modest ideas will all take time to put in place, and most of that can’t start until I leave “employment” which at this time means after the new year.

In the meantime, I will continue to send short emails when I find something I think is noteworthy, particularly helpful, or when I update my blog.

How You Can Follow What I’m Doing

If you’re interested in staying in touch in an easy and fun way, you can also follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com), which has become my main communication tool. If you are not familiar with Twitter, it’s like instant messaging (IM), but to a group, and it’s limited to short “tweets” of 140 characters only, which get broadcast to anyone who is following you. So rather than IMing or texting just one person at a time, you send a tweet and it goes to everyone at the same time. It’s a great way to stay in touch and is an amazing way to build relationships.

At first I didn’t “get it”. I actually thought it was stupid, and it took me a couple of months to realize how it worked and what its potential really was. Now it’s an indispensable tool that keeps me connected and up to date with people I care about (and follow).

Twitter’s an amazing application that has given me new friends, provided valuable links to resources I might never have found on my own, and has become a consistent source of entertainment! There are lots of ways to stay connected since Tweets can be send via the web, IM, phones and other Twitter applications.

To find out more about Twitter, go to their website http://twitter.com. There’s a video available that gives you an idea of how it can be used.  You can also find out more by reading their FAQs.

A couple of my friends are about to release a handbook (http://TwitterHandbook.com) any day now, and there are already dozens and dozens of applications that make Twitter a very useful resource in itself.  My favorite is a desktop application called Twhirl, which can be found at http://www.twhirl.org.

Well, that’s it for now. If you’re in the US, have a great labor-free weekend! If you’re not in the US, have a great weekend, anyway!

Warmly,

Katie

http://twitter.com/katiedarden

@katiedarden