Do You Want To Come Out Of This…A Winner?

If you want to be a winner in this economy, you have to change your focus.

Walk with me a few yards with this will you?  Let’s look at this thing. You can either hunker down and hope for the big winds of economic blast to blow 'over top' of you. Or you can step out of the ‘protected’ stance, and really get involved in what’s happening…including the bargains and opportunities that will prevail.

Let’s not kid ourselves here. You can play to win this game; or you can play NOT to lose.

I have written about researching stocks in the last two years (to read some of those articles, click on the ezine articles.com ‘Platinum Expert logo, under my photo). In that work I have found that there are always bargains to be found in economic downturns.

Some folks know that they can sell short and make money even when some stocks fall. Then they buy them back when they are very inexpensive…read: cheap bargains. Others can scour the marketplace and pick up foreclosed properties and such.

Still others figure the best way to survive is to take cover, keep your head low and just hope for the best.

Sure that might work; but you will still not have much left when the worst is over. The media are going to keep crying bloody murder while creating that same self-fulfilling economic reality our EC101 profs told us about as freshmen.

Sure, if enough people believe that the sky is falling, eventually they will cause some mess to ensue; some will be hurt in the process. The media (if it bleeds, it leads) will still be there — albeit with less advertising revenues to run their own businesses — telling us how bad it still is.

I believe some will be hurt by this “economic dislocation” that is taking place. That’s reality. But if you refuse to accept this negative focus…and decide to play the game to win it…no matter what, then you stand a much better chance of success.

Instead of this “woe is me” stuff, stand up, look around, and see if there are any ways you can improve your business, if not profit from these changes.

McDonalds has known for decades, that whenever we go down into a “dip” in the economy…if they work harder, advertise more, and keep up their QSC and V (quality, service, cleanliness and value for money) ratings…they will do just fine. In fact, when they keep their ad schedules up (now they can buy much better than in the recent past too…there are lots of new media buying bargains out there!) they have always come out of the dip way ahead of the rest of the pack.

The president of McDonald’s Canada, George Cohon, taught me that…back in the late 70’s. My ex-boss and friend, Jack Cowin, of Sydney, Australia, owner of more QSR’s than any other man Down Under, (Hungry Jacks, KFC, Pizza Hut) taught me similar concepts in the early 70’s.

The choice is yours: you can play this new game to NOT LOSE; or you can play it to win. Whether you win or lose, you will still be far better off than you would have been, if you had taken no action at all.

It’s a question of being proactive, not reactive.

What do you think? Go ahead…share your two cents worth with the rest of us.  I'd love to hear your comments!