This Thanksgiving season, while everyone is worried about the economy and complaining about how bad things have gotten, I spent some time reflecting on a recent trip to visit my aunt and uncle in Texas. During our visit they reminisced about their formative years during the Great Depression, and how my grandfather and all his neighbors migrated west in search of work.
I am thankful that we are not facing the same kind of economic depression. We don’t have 28 percent unemployment and we are not facing the same kind of hardship that our grandparents had in the 1930s.
I also am struck by what’s different today. After speaking with my aunt and uncle I realized that during the Great Depression, there was a larger sense of fellowship and camaraderie. No one felt deprived eating potato soup or pancakes for dinner, because everyone was in the same boat. My uncle recalls that the family and all our neighbors used to get into the movies for free because my grandfather had made a trade for feed with the theater owner. Hardship and prosperity were shared as part of a community.
Today, we have something different. Everyone seems paralyzed by fear, and we are all fearful in isolation – afraid to make a career move; afraid to adopt a new business strategy; afraid to invest in the market. There isn’t the same sense of shared experience or community. While some people face bankruptcy and foreclosure, others are unaffected or even prospering. Consider the irony of General Motors executives flying to Washington in their private jets, looking for a bailout. The scales seem out of balance.
But we still need strong leadership. During the Depression, the Hoovervilles were replaced by the optimism of FDR’s New Deal, and it was Roosevelt who helped galvanize the nation and nurture that sense of community through strong leadership. The same is true in today’s business climate. The strong leaders are building strong companies in hard times, and those are the leaders you should be following because they will continue to build the kind of companies you want to work for.
Today’s economic climate requires a new kind of leadership. For example, consider the wisdom of Andrew Savitz book The Triple Bottom Line. True leaders and real business success stories are finding ways to balance people, the planet, and profits in a way that everyone benefits. Those are the companies that have a better chance of success in hard economic times.
So be thankful that things aren’t as bad as they could be, and that there are pockets of opportunity. As FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” So don’t be paralyzed by fear. Seek out visionaries worth following and regain your sense of purpose and optimism.
