This horrendous month has me thinking about my options.  Should I downsize to make future inevitable months like July 2010 less painful.  I can’t control the buying habits of you yanks, but I can at least control the amount I spend to service those habits.  This business is highly cyclical and even more highly susceptible to economic trends.  After all, a vacation is not your most essential expense and when people feel their purse-strings a bit pinched, out goes those vacation plans.  Does anyone out there think even once about ME in the course of this decision making?  The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding NO.  So all that has me caught squarely in the common corporate conundrum of “to downsize or not to downsize?”  I believe often times corporate downsizing is just a knee-jerk reaction borne out of fear….you know, that old “lizard brain” hard at work.  I want to avoid that at all costs.  I don’t want any downsizing decisions to ultimately result in devaluation disasters.  And often times, such decisions have that exact result.  Recalling those adages of “the past doesn’t equal the future” and “right now isn’t forever” (remember those?), I know from experience that things will turn up again.  I realize that by downsizing now I may indeed create a problem for the future when the sun comes out.  And the future in this business could be, like, today!  One thing I know for absolute sure is that the ultimate product I am selling, Costa Rica, is not losing one iota of its appeal…in fact, it is only getting better.  So rather than downsizing, maybe a keener way to look at it is to be more insightful and adept at presenting this incredible product to my viewing audience…you!  And efforts towards  that end may actually call for a bit of UP rather than DOWN-sizing.  Anyway, so goes the thrills, chills and ills of being an entrepreneur. I am sure there could be one or two folks who visit this blog who may have experienced similar dilemmas.  They really do have horns, don’t they?

It’s just never enough now is it?  There is never enough of it, whatever “it” might be…but usually lack conjurs up the idea of a shortage of little green pieces of paper bearing pictures of dead notables.  Who was it, I believe Descartes, who said, “I think therefore I am?”  Well here’s another one for you, “I lack therefore I don’t.”  But is this condition, feeling, sentiment, or mental malady known as “lack” really, real?  I would venture to say this morning, that it really isn’t.  It is just a perception.  And a mind numbing, creativity paralyzing one at that.  Consider this, at this moment in time, like right now, you can go to a website called Squidoo.com (founded by Seth Godin) and create a web page about anything that has the potential of reaching folks at the far reaching corners of our planet and you can do it absolutely for FREE! There are so many resources available now that enable anyone who can fight off this perception of lack to do incredible things and find success in the process.  But here’s the catch….you gotta be willing these days to give in order to get.  Hasn’t always been that way.  In the good old days we demanded an honest pay for an honest days work, or a fair price for a decent product that allowed us to enjoy a compensable margin and profit.  Not anymore.  Now, due to the infinite variety of free stuff and free information at the simple reach of a few keystrokes, people demand something for nothing. The ancient idea of quid pro quo is basically old hat now.  But if you can break out of the suffocating bubble of lack and tap into those creative juices you can take advantage of this new anti-industrial age.  But it all starts when you stop lacking and start looking.  Open your eyes and your mind to the infinite possibilities.  Create a tribe and people who share a vision and then solve a problem that others who could only see the solution of money (and since there was lack it never got solved) never could. Sure at some point in the process of creating and giving away value, money will get exchanged and hopefully some of that will flow your way.  But don’t worry about all that just yet.  First shake off this lackluster perception of lack and lurch forward into the unknown…defy the lizard brain and just do something!

This economic malaise that has swept over the entire planet has now been going on for almost two years!  Will it ever end?  Will things ever be normal and reliable again?  It seems not, but of course things will change, eventually.  One thing I believe is important to fight against in these trying times is for your thinking to be completely dominated by the “lizard brain.”  The “lizard brain” is a phrase coined by Seth Godin.  It refers to the amygdala, or that tiny little part of the brain that kicks into gear whenever one is in panic mode.  Wikipedia describes it as the part that “performs a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions.”  According to Godin, it is the part that is usually in control whenever one is angry, afraid, aroused, hungry, or in search of revenge.  Godin says that the byproduct of lizard brain control is resistance.  That is, resistance to doing anything in a different, new or creative way.  Lizard brain thinkers always resist change because change makes them feel uncomfortable.  I believe one of the most common “lizard brain” reactions entrepreneurs make in times of economic crisis, such as we are experiencing now, is to lower prices, or to “give away the farm.”  When you get everyone in an industry doing that, which seems to be the case in my industry, you have what I will call a “race to the bottom.”  The problem is that in those types of races, there is no winner.  Everyone loses.  Well, maybe the “lowest cost producer or provider” in a sense wins, but that usually is the largest and most bureaucratic participant in the race and for it to win means all the rest of us lose…lose in terms of enjoying any level of actual care for the customer.  I refuse to participate in this race.  I just do.  If it costs me everything, then so be it. I believe a better way is in fact to resist, but resist control of the amygdala.  Ignore it (easier said than done, since this tiny part exerts a lot of power) and tap into more creative sectors of my brain that may actually inspire ideas that can indeed help me win, but not just me.  If I can exit this ridiculous race and find a way up, rather than down, everyone wins.  My customers win, my employees win, I certainly win, and society wins because I am able to contribute more.  Resist control of the amygdala and stay the heck out of “races to the bottom.”