Don't Worry, Be Happy

Thinking steps to brainstorm your way out of “The Recession”.

With all the depressing media rumination on gas prices, war, climate change and world hunger, you’d figure the world was about to come to an end. If enough people get depressed the media declares we’re having a “recession” … and sooner or later the spending habits of millions of media-depressed individuals bears out in a quarter with a reduction in consumer spending.

My take on it is that after tracking Britney Spears and Paris Hilton around for the last year, the media is getting ready to lump all our problems into one really big “Situation Room” story they can put on CNN with a banner reading “The World Crisis –When Will It End?”

Warren Buffet says “The Recession” has landed upon America and it will be “deeper, longer”, than expected. The reality is that gas prices are up, oil production is down, rice prices are up, rice production is down. The gas prices affect just about everything. The rice prices hurt a lot of people in third world countries. All that, plus there’s a lengthy war in the Middle East and the mortgage market in the US going wacky and things begin to look pretty ugly for America and the world as a whole.

All this bad news repeated daily and suddenly “The Recession” changes from a lifeless market tracking statistic and begins to inhabit your mind as a living, fire-breathing dragon ready to burn your house down, empty your bank account, gut your business and throw your family out on the street.

The good news is – “The Recession” is largely an illusion - a mass-hypnosis suggestion that has been doled out by people who spend way too much time looking at computer screens with numbers on them, and the only way to make the dragon real is if you believe it will screw up your life, which certain investors would love to see happen. Wealthy investors love a good recession – stocks get snapped up on the cheap, unemployment allows half-dead companies to restructure and after an economic winter everything looks rosy, and they’re way wealthier.

Once the news hits the streets, entire populations believe in it, get desperate, depressed and squirrel away their money and gradually it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. When people get evicted from their house they can blame it on “the recession” – as if it were a living entity.

Market recessions do happen from time to time, but there’s nothing that says that this turn of affairs needs to hurt YOU. In fact, if you’re a tad clever in your thinking you can live handsomely during “The Recession”. The last recession in 2002 created the dynamics that caused I & A to re-invent itself in a much better way than before.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Recession label or not -- in most first world countries – we are not in dire straits.

Some people in the US are losing their homes, their jobs and are facing some new realities. There will be discomfort for many as they struggle to adapt to the change, but very few people in the First World will die from it and by the virtue of their own efforts, families, communities and governments will all learn from it and come out better, wiser people.

In this article I’ll walk you through a thinking process that should relieve you of some worry, and at least put your relation to “The Recession” in proper perspective and help you to alleviate its ill effects on your life.

I’ll also show you how to plan strategies so that when problems do arise, you have a solution ready and waiting to apply.

So you think you’ve got problems?

First, let’s put our First World problems in “perspective” - this spring I spent a few weeks in Senegal in a tiny rural village called Yenne were the average working wage is around $1.15 a day and people generally die in their 50’s. There, people live on rice, fish (good fish by the way – with particularly excellent spices) and a weird sort of yogurt. They can’t afford fridges so you generally let any meat you are lucky enough to own run around free in the yard (goats, chickens, etc)…until it’s time to eat. Given that about 75% of their income is spent on food, they’re pretty unhappy about the price of rice tripling, all foods rising in price, and looking around trying to figure out who the heck can help them get out of the situation – their government? The United Nations?

These people are in what seems to be a semi-permanent recession where there is almost no middle class, just a lot of poor people and a small group of seriously wealthy people running the country.

In Senegal, the good news is that people work well together. If your bus gets a flat tire, the next bus driver stops to help. If you need to buy a goat, a friend will lend you his motor scooter so that you can drive it home…across the handlebars! When life gets you down, you get some friends together with some drums and any to other instrument you can dig up and sing the blues, pray to your local “Genie protector” (West African equivalent of “guardian angels”) and get the bad feelings out of your system. The result is that crises seem to get “averaged out” by families sharing responsibilities and sharing what little they have, life works out and they tend to be better emotionally adjusted people than we are.

These people surprised me with how healthy they were mentally and in such good spirits. In comparison to their pro-active, “come what may” attitudes, I was anxiety-ridden and morose as I witnessed their water issues, food issues, electricity issues, pollution issues, education problems and the like.

The difference is attitude. There, families come together and solve problems for each other. They don’t sit around watching CNN (the anxiety channel) all day and worrying about what will happen next. In the small town of Yenne, they work to survive and while they work, they sing songs to keep focus and keep themselves in good spirits. What they lack in physical assets, they more than make up for in social assets with extensive “support networks” in their family and beyond, and have way more compassion for us in our First World than we for them.

My hope is that they’ll put their social assets to good use in addressing their current food crisis.

Your “support network” can pull you through bad times

In our First World, we have the benefit of technologies to help us pull through, but never neglect the power of your social assets - when times get tough, the tough work together and solve problems.

When economic problems occur in your life, you have the choice to either live an isolated life in shame and embarrassment that you have a problem, hiding from the world, or… to be part of the solution and find the support – your support network.

Your own family might be dysfunctional and your company CEO might look like he’s planning to go stand on a ledge (after he gets done laying everyone off)… but you too have a support family or network.

Most people think of their family as their support network, which it is, but beyond your immediate family, all minds that seek solutions to problems in the world and on the Internet are your family and can be tapped. People often find that “friends of friends” have the answers to their problems whether it involves finding employment, the next business deal or adventure.

The first rule is – never isolate yourself.

The essence of business is providing a solution to another’s problem. Whether it’s putting rice on your table, or an iPod in your pocket, businesses seek to solve problems and thus can be looked at as part of your “solution family” too.

I regard the readers of this newsletter as a “brainstorming network” which among the 60,000 or so readers has an infinite potential to solve problems. Won’t it be exciting as new technologies such as Mindjet’s new “Connect” technology allow our minds to come together in real-time and solve problems?

Let’s look at a thinking process you can go through to remove any worries you have about the recession dragon and get yourself setup for a smoother and hopefully exciting ride.

Recipe for Recession Planning using SOS and a SWOT

The goal of planning for the unknown is to know what your options are. With a recession you need to be able to manage your job or business and your finances so that sudden shocks won’t leave your hopeless and desperate.

The recipe for this process is based on my favorite thinking process – SOS - the subject of my upcoming book and which is an acronym for Situations, Objectives and Strategies. Think any problem through these three thinking steps and you’ll live longer, happier, healthier and wiser.

Step 1 – What is your current Situation?

You probably have a vague idea of what you do in life, what you’re capable of and some of the tools that surround you, but have you ever really analyzed it?

To analyze your situation, we’ll use a technique called SWOT. For those of you who have never heard of SWOT – it an analysis technique for identifying your Strengths, your Weaknesses, Opportunities coming your way and Threats facing you

Open your favorite mind mapping program, or take a sheet of paper and write the term “SWOT” in the center. Make 4 branches entitled –

• Strengths and Assets
  
• Weaknesses and Liabilities
  
• Opportunities
  
• Threats
  

We’ll first look at your strengths and assets. You have assets that most Senegalese could not imagine in their wildest dreams.

In Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, he points out that “rich people purchase assets” and “poor people purchase liabilities”.

What’s an Asset? Simply put, an asset is anything that is or could be used to generate money for you and liabilities are anything you buy that won’t generate money for you, that generates expense.

Create a branch of “Strengths and Assets” called “Things that currently earn me money”. If you’re employed that would be your job, if unemployed your unemployment or welfare check (or even your beggars bowl if you have one). It could be items you rent to other people for special events such as musical equipment, chairs, tables, or media equipment.

If you have a bit of financial know- you might also have – rental properties, computer software you own or license , companies you might own, stocks and bonds, etc.

List anything that comes to mind that during the year earns you money.

Create a branch called “If I had to liquidate” and list all the things you have that are valuable that you could sell if you wanted to – your skis, sound system, cars, electronic gadgets, etc.

Now the fun branch! Create another branch called “Things I own that could possibly earn me money”. On this one, walk around your house and brainstorm how the objects in your environment could open the door to possible income based on items and technologies around your house. This branch will amaze you if you allow yourself to think the ridiculous.

Your oven could be a tool for a catering business; your clothes washer could be supply a laundry service to overworked executives; your digital camera could be used for event photography, listing photos on eBay, providing home walk-throughs for real-estate agents.

Don’t worry that some would pay you $5 an hour, and others $500 an hour…just list the things you own that have the potential to be used as money earners, no matter how small the sum.

Finally create a branch called “Talents and Abilities” and on this list your talents, both obvious and hidden. Think of things that you do naturally that could generate income if you needed it. Personally I’m a former pro musician and have tolerable skills as a photographer so I list those. Do you know how to write advertisements, paint pictures, paint walls, build decks, etc… what skills do you have that you’ve long forgotten? List all the different jobs you’ve worked at in your life. Obviously you could do any of them again if you needed to. List all the skills you acquired in school, training courses, or even taught by your grandfather.

What are you “good at”? Good at drawing, painting, fixing things, planning, accounting, budgeting? If you’ve been a housewife or househusband for years – are you good at managing children, housecleaning, budgeting?

What things about yourself – or perhaps things you own that make you the most proud? Your ability to joke when times are tough? The shine on your ’69 Mustang?

If you now look at what is likely a very stuffed Strengths and Assets branch you might begin to appreciate that you do live in a First World country and that you are rich with possibilities and education. Somewhere in life you developed the skills and acquired enough wealth to live this long – and that’s worth something!

Go back for each item and add a few bits of data as sub-branches.

• How much does each item in your “Things that currently earn me money” earn you?
  
• How much could the things you could (if you wanted to) liquidate be worth? How long would it take to sell them?
  
• Look at each item in “Things I own that could possibly earn me money” and ask yourself how much each would earn, and estimate how long would it take to go from startup to cash.
  
• Move all the items that are the most interesting to you, to the top.
  

On the “Weakness and Liabilities” branch, create a branch “Stuff I have pay” and list the names of everything significant that you pay monthly or continuously – Loans, Mortgages, Credit Cards, Car Expenses, etc..

Create a branch “Personal issues” and list all your favorite weaknesses and worries – job instability, poor health, too old, too young, too middle-aged , insanity running in the family, prone to heart-attacks, anxiety attacks, allergy attacks, asthma attacks, or fear of military invasion.

For all the items “Stuff I have to pay”, list the cost of each and put the ones that worry you the most on top. For all the items in “Personal Issues”, list how much time you spend thinking about each one on a daily basis.

Now remember, we are planning for recession, so for the Opportunities branch, we’re going to take a different approach. Up to now, we’ve listed all the things that help us and hinder us, but now we’re going to ask specific questions and answer them.

Here’s the list of questions I want you to research and answer:

1. Which businesses will not be experiencing ill effects from a recession in my country?
   
2. Which people will not be experiencing ill effects from a recession and have cash on hand?
   
3. Which countries are not having a recession at the moment?
   
4. What services do people who are experiencing a recession need the most?
   
5. What products do people who are experiencing a recession need the most?
   
6. What products and services do the people who are NOT experiencing a recession right now need the most?
   

My guess is that Warren Buffet is not going to suffer much in this recession. My guess is that China will still be selling things to countries that are not suffering from a recession. My guess is that nervous people are going to seek remedy and release from stress in health products, the usual addictive stuff like food, drugs and alcohol. They’ll want to go see live music to feel better, they’ll seek religious order in their minds and purchase books and attend seminars. They’ll buy things that save money, or that they perceive as saving money. They’ll be looking for ideas.

What do you think?

Next, let’s look at your dragons- For the section on Threats, answer these questions:

1. What would be the worst effect of a recession on my life?
   
2. What would happen if everyone in my town or country was unemployed?
   
3. What would happen if my job ended today?
   
4. What aspect of the “Recession” dragon scares me the most?
   
5. What would my family say if we lost all our money?
   
6. What would my friends say if we lost all our money?
   
7. What is the most likely thing to go wrong in my life when a recession “hits”?
   

Many people fear starvation, poor health and death. They think they’ll end up like the old Bowery bums in New York begging for money. Beyond that, they fear ridicule and shame, the fear that their family and friends will find out that they failed financially, that they didn’t squirrel away enough money to survive the threats.

In my opinion, the biggest threat is likely none of the things you wrote down to answer these 6 questions. The biggest threat is “Ignorance and Self-Centered Living”.

There is one principle cause of suffering which is not necessary for living - mistaken beliefs and perceptions about things and people, which is Ignorance.

We might cry when we watch a repo-man taking away our Porsche, our flat-screen TV or maybe even our house – but these things were temporary items anyway. The Porsche would have ended up recycled into some other car in 50 years. The flat-screen TV would have been in the garbage within 10. The house would likely be knocked down within 100 years by developers or another Hurricane Katrina.

When we live our lives in private desolation separate from family, friends, and neighbors, and don’t take advantage of the group dynamic that can happen when times are rough, then we truly are worse off than our poor earth-colleagues in Africa.

The definition of desperation is “out of ideas”. If you practice brainstorming, you’ll never be out of ideas, and thus never desperate.

Step 2 – Objectives

Now that you have a good grasp of your situation as it relates to recession, what are your objectives?

How would you like to see things happen during the next year or two?

The only thing that happens when life changes is – life changes.

Start a new brainstorm page called Objectives and here are some good ones you could use verbatim if you like -

• Reduce liabilities
  
• Increase cash availability
  
• Increase cash generation
  
• Increase savings
  
• Match each threat with a strategy
  
• Match each opportunity with a strategy
  

Step 3 – Strategies

Printout or look at your SWOT page. Working on the objectives brainstorm page, for each objective brainstorm strategies based on your assets, strengths and the opportunities you see in your life that would address each objective.

Good strategies solve several objectives at once, leverage opportunities and circumnavigate threats.

A recession is a time of change. It means that you probably won’t be able to live life exactly the way you did before.

“Newness” is often terrifying to people and one example is the situation of people who are likely to be thrown out of work as some businesses panic. The television coverage of families in tears wondering “what are we going to do?” focuses on the critical emotional moment, when they’re at their most dire…not the moment after when they figure out what it is they really WILL do.

Once people get over the “embarrassment” of changing direction, they move on. It really is silly that in this day and age we still rate people by what they “do”, and realistically the embarrassment is unwarranted. I’m just as proud of work I’ve done at $3.50 an hour cleaning scum from the bottom of buckets in a Deli when I was younger as I am advising CEOs. Frankly in the Deli, the coffee was better.

One should never be embarrassed to change career paths, or do anything it takes to put yourself, your family or friends in a better financial situation.

I find the people who take the least time to adapt to drastic change are the ones who create things regularly – they manufacture new things from thin air, either in the form of ideas, media, art, handicrafts, furniture and given a few raw materials can turn 30 cents of ingredients – a tomato, garlic and basil into a gourmet pesto.

The people with the second easiest time are those who have service capabilities such as painters, carpenters, lawn experts, seamstresses, chefs.

The ones with the hardest time are those who chose specialist professions or who have just done the same job for too long without any need for change.

Looking at the objective “To reduce liabilities” - let’s imagine that besides being a businessperson, you’re also a closet guitar player. You might jot down “Play ‘60s folk songs in local coffee house on Fridays for $100 a night – or for tips”. You don’t have to actually do it, but it’s good to know you could…it’s an option and that’s the purpose of a brainstorming plan like this – to show you what are you options?

A good strategy takes advantage of several of the opportunities you listed as well as your abilities. If you see an opportunity such as “People will want diversions and listen to live music” and you can do that, why not knock down your credit cards by $400 each month by spending an evening enjoying yourself?

Or perhaps with no interest in music you might want to “liquidate” your old Gibson and pay off your credit card debt in one shot on eBay or Craig’s list.

Maybe music isn’t your thing. Perhaps you’re a Wall Street broker who can’t tell your friends that your hidden passion is… sewing quilts? You bet, a good artistic quilt sells for $500 on up.

Look closely at all the Threats you identified. How would you handle each one? Let’s say that everyone in town becomes unemployed and cashless. What type of barter system could you set up to help everyone return to prosperity?

List all the strategies that you can think of…then go to sleep and the next day…

The next day

Things look different in the light of a new day. Read through the pages you’ve created and you’ll find that some things that looked brilliant look odd and ridiculous, and vice versa.

Look through your strategies and see if any of them could help you out now, perhaps there’s one or two that might improve your situation immediately and relieve you of worry.

Finally, refer back to these pages whenever a new situation arises. Add to them, and keep them as your personal plan to survive and thrive in whatever comes your way.

Doesn’t that take some stress off your mind knowing that you have options and strategies that you can activate if anything happens?

The only real dragon in this world is Change.

As they say the only constant in this world is Change. To be prepared for it, learn to analyze your situation, set your objectives, brainstorm strategies…and implement the best ones…and you’ll be fine.

Last time there was a recession, I looked for business in Australia where they weren’t having a recession.

Around the same time I stood up at a business-to-business “dating” group one day in Ottawa and asked everyone who was having a terrible business year to raise their hands. Then I asked everyone who was having a great year to raise their hands. Obviously I then ignored all the people having terrible years and went to chat with the people who were having good years – they had money to spend and a better outlook.

But, if the worst happens, the world goes to pot, and all else fails, you’ll find me playing piano in a café somewhere singing “I Got Plenty of Nuttin, and Nuttin’s Plenty For Me”.

Sideline

When I wrote the last newsletter in February I was amazed at the response, literally hundreds of e-mails came in from readers around the world. I was particularly touched by one letter from South Africa, from Andrea Larnyoh.

Andrea made a very kind and astute comment in response to my article on Question Maps that “Asking questions assumes that everyone has a valid opinion, so it is a humble and respectful approach which adds immediate value to the recipient, however reticent. “

As I’m a jazz buff, I noted her e-mail address included the name “George Lee”, a famous African Saxophonist –who toured with Louis Armstrong in the late 50’s and founded a band the “Ghana Messengers” which introduced African jazz to the US in the 60’s. I remember hearing him on WRVR in New York in the early 80’s.

I asked her if George was her husband, and she replied indeed he was and unfortunately is in the late stages of Lou Gehrigs disease. It sounded to me like she and he are having a tough time, so why not do this family and yourself a favor and buy Georges wonderful year 2000 album ironically entitled “Networking”… and help out a man who gave the world some joy!

You can get it on CDBaby, a distribution site for independent music labels here - http://cdbaby.com/cd/georgelee -

It’ll be good Karma 