This Is Your Captain Speaking
Step outside of our industry for a moment, stick your head outside of a window, and feel that cool, unrelenting breeze blowing in your face.
You're not alone. Recognize it?
It's called free-falling.
Read the entries on MediaPost, and you get the sense, on the surface, that we're looking for boundaries. Better metrics. Accuracy. Accountability.
Integrity.
Leadership.
Check out the pages of any newspaper or Web site, or snippets of your local news broadcasts, regardless of their "liens," and you'll hear about America's search for the same things.
Whom do we trust to tell us the truth? For that matter, what IS the truth?
The real question becomes even more foreboding: Do you really want to know?
My gut? We're not really looking for boundaries.
We're looking for a bottom.
I'm certain The Powers That Be will continue to find new ways to spin what's happening in a way that will support a "soft landing," all while insuring that TV ratings "hold up surprisingly well." After all, we all have a vested interest in insuring that this is believed by everybody with a checkbook.
Except what we're really sensing is that the ultimate checkbooks -- the ones on Main Street -- may indeed be full of checks, but tied to accounts with inadequate balances, held at banks that cumulatively might not be able to support the tsunami of ink they're being asked to absorb.
In difficult times, on the way down, you might be fortunate enough to become numb to the vertigo, and even begin to enjoy the ride. This is, after all, a rare opportunity to get your proverbial house in order.
One thing is for sure: There WILL be a bottom. Much like Charlton Heston's first step out of the capsule, into a strange, barren, yet hauntingly familiar landscape, we will one day get back on firm footing, get our bearings, and get back to the business of business.
Until then, though, while you're buckling up and bracing for that splash in the Hudson, let's recognize that we each played a role in the flight plan. Each one of us put ourselves first, more than once, somewhere along the way to the terminal.
Whether it's inflated home prices, share prices, or ratings, who among us hasn't winked once to an accomplice and nudged them, thinking, "Can you believe this?"
Believe it.
Now, you might want to place your tray table in its full and upright position.
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First and foremost...I want to share that I truly enjoy reading the daily info presented by all on MediaPost.
I want to say that the general media has educated us very well on the affects of the economy and job security.
I've spent my career in ad agencies and in corporate america with (3M Corp) and I know full well the impact of paradyme shifts. When my division of 3M was sold...like many I found myself on the unemployment list...but not for long.
I did my own homework and started to look at biz options that would carry me financially for today and some for tomorrow. After evauating all my options, I started 3 businesses...my own marketing and media planning company for small businesses, an online marketing company, and I also market websites to small and mid-size companies. For me it was all about building a back-up plans for my future, so I did not have to rely on someone else determining my fate and financial future.
With all the negative noise out there today...they are certainly shouting that EVERYONE today should have a back-up plan...but most people wait until the fire goes out before they try and get a spark again. Don't wait...look at your biz options and but look at more than one. Be diversified, have multiple streams of income...so if one goes away...there are others to fall on.
We are smart, we have choices...so don't wait do your homework so we can stay positive about where we are going.
As they say...always keep one foot in and one foot out!
sylvia21@metrocast.net