I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Friday, February 6, 2009

A Different Take On Recession

This story is about a man who once upon a time was selling Hotdogs by
the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was
hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak,
so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of
hotdogs.

He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his
sales. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more a more raw material
and buns and sold more. He recruited more supporting staff to serve more
customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got
himself a bigger and better stove. As his business was growing, the son,
who had recently graduated from college, joined his father.

Then something strange happened.......

The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is
coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son
said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation
is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times."

The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers,
listened to the radio and watched TV. He ought to know and his advice
should not be taken lightly. So the next day onwards, the father cut
down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colorful
signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the
customers and was no longer as enthusiastic. He reduced his staff
strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered
to stop at his Hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly
and so did the profit. The father said to his son, "Son, you were
right". "We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you
warned me ahead of time."

Moral of the Story: It's all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this
recession much more than we think.

A friend of mine in India sent this to me and I do think there is wisdom here --the more we focus on what's wrong, the more wrong we have to focus on.

9 comments:

bobbie said...

I definitely think you are right.
And the media isn't going to let us think any other way.

Darlene said...

Moral of the story; think positive. It's hard to focus on that though when we are told daily how many more lost their jobs and how the DOW is sinking, et al.

I am too pragmatic to remain cheerful. Sigh!

Anonymous said...

Hooray!! I fully support this kind of thought process. as they say - What you focus on expands! Is is lack, or bounty...

Susan at Stony River said...

Nothing to fear but fear itself.
We know it's true!
Thanks for the story Sylvia!

Mare said...

Good analogie. My thought: The glass is half full.
Now, if we could only shut up the doom and gloom naysayers.

Judy said...

This is so true! I think we are all making this worse than what it is. We need to be more positive about everything and look at the glass as half full not half empty. Thank you so much for your concern and visits during the ice storm here. I have missed reading your posts and have a lot of catching up to do. I feel like I have been in jail and not allowed to have any visitors! lol.

Linda Reeder said...

There is a lot of truth is this. The stock market runs on pure emotion, sending panic into the rest of the economy. People have stopped spending even if they can afford it. The result is closed businesses and unemployment rising.
It's like the old run on a bank. Panic.

pink dogwood said...

I agree - even my husband and I are not spending as much as we usually do.

Rinkly Rimes said...

My mother told me she lived through the Great Depression and hardly knew it was going on!!! Pre TV!

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

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