Jumpstart Automotive Group

Last weekend, my beach-bound reverie was interrupted by an email from a worried friend. His note was short and to the point. He was concerned that he was settling into a pattern of incrementalism that would doom his business to mediocrity. Good to Great, this was not and as an acolyte of Jim Collins, his admission was nothing short of crisis of faith.

His concern is real and is founded in the muck and the mire we are swimming in each day. Our daily newsreader is unfailing downbeat, like the diary of a navel-gazing teenager; our despondent and cynical Tweets are filled with self-effacing “FMLs” that serve to reinforce the notion that nothing is going well for anyone; the Facebook universe is littered with friend updates that look more like the nightly logbook of a crisis hotline. On a daily basis, we are watching companies less and less able to stand without the support of government loans and subsidies. Some days, it feels as if the entire country is doing all it can do to put one collective foot in front of the other to simply get by.

Fortunately, my friend saw this for what it was and called BS on his own small-mindedness. He realizes that now is the perfect time to create real opportunities for himself and his employees, by boldly striking out towards new goals, confidently shedding ideas past their prime, and dragging his organization toward a more aspirational finish line. Think about it. Nobody is expecting anything to work now. What a glorious time to experiment. If your idea doesn’t work, do what everyone else does—blame it on the jobless rate/consumer confidence/housing price index. But, if it does…what a heroic moment.

Take chances now. Your failures will go unnoticed. Your successes may be revolutionary.