Let me be the first to say that 2009 may be a difficult and challenging year for most people, including –as well as your clients. Continuing your business as usual, (the "we’;ve always done it that way" battle cry) is the fast track to failure in the 21st Century. The word "January" comes from the Roman god, Janus, considered the god of beginnings and endings, as well the god of gates and doors. Janus is shown with a double face. One face looks left, the other looks right. Janus’; double face is a fantastic word picture as we move into the first of month of 2008, looking both backward and forward, sometimes ecstatic, and sometimes suffering bewilderment and confusion. Will you have a new beginning in your career or business in 2009? And will you have endings this year?
You can succeed in 2009, if you move in the right direction. Will gates and doors open or shut as you attempt to enter into 2009? That’;s mainly up to you and how you deal with the challenges of 2009, either as an opportunity seeker or a whiner trying to avoid change and to continue living in the past.
Today’;s American culture is much like English novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) described The French Revolution of the late 1700′;s. The French Revolution motto was "liberty, equality and fraternity." Dickens was a champion of deprived and exploited people at the hands of an oppressive monarchy, expressing these views in his writings. In his "Tale of Two Cities," he described that era as "the best of times, the worst of times, it was an age of wisdom, it was an age of foolishness, it was an epoch of belief, it was the age of incredulity," … Does "Tale Of Two Cities" sound familiar? It should. Yogi Berra would describe our familiairity with Dickens’; time as an example of "Deja Vu All Over Again." Deja Vu literally means "already seen." Experiencing Deja Vu may also include familiarity, eeriness, strangeness and weirdness as well. Now let’;s focus on the economic and structural problems in the United States in 2008. You must understand how to overcome these things to succeed. The nation finds itself in this condition:
1. There’;s a federal budget deficit of $11 trillion +.
2. We have federal unfunded liabilities (such as Social Security) of $55 trillion.
3. America has the highest consumer debt and business debt levels of all time.
4. A recession or and/or stagflation are very possible.
5. Medium-sized retailers are having difficulty making an acceptable profit, since real estate is a fixed expense and sales are variable (now declining). Many of medium size retailers will be gone within 10 years, says millionaire Michael Masterson.
6. American residential and commercial real estate is dreary at this point. Many believe that there are oversized bubbles of asset prices of American real estate which misalign the value of the dollar. American real estate is over-valued by up to 30% and an asset value correction is both likely and much needed.
7. American Consumer spending is weak and is expected to become weaker.
8. America’;s stagnant economy is directly and inversely proportional to China’;s sustained, quantum double digit economic growth.
9. America’;s middle class is declining. Within a few years, people will either become rich (the self-employed) or poor (long term unemployed employees stubbornly searching for jobs that no longer exist). How sad.
10. Gas is now more than $….. per gallon nationally. It may increase to $6.00 per gallon in the near future due to supply and demand and the lack of political stability in certain OPEC nations.
11. Some 80% of real estate developers are predicted to fold within the next several years due to market conditions. (Another Michael Masterson forecast).
12. A comfortable retirement at age 65 will continue to become a thing of the past.
Those are the problems. But what are the solutions? The reality that the 21st Century is entirely different than the previous century, and it offers great opportunities for business success abound in the 21st Century.
In some businesses, that "Do It" moves the other way, from "Do It Myself" to "Do It For Me.
Increasingly customers do not want to change their own car oil. They want someone or some business to "do it for me."
Today, business has become global. Self-employment is the way to survive and thrive in the 21st Century; trade barriers between nations have been torn down. Lifelong jobs at a single employer no longer exist in most cases.
You and your business can become overcomers and victors in 2009. Learn how to use a mighty business tool.
Using The Law Of Attraction, you can draw people to your business and make money.