What's Good About This?

Pick up any newspaper, watch any newscast, listen to most of your friends and I'll bet you get a similar story: Things are bad and getting worse. The more you read and listen to this, the worse it gets.

I remember when I first got in the car business in the early 1970's. Business was ebbing and I remember reading an article that in the down market auto sales nationwide were about 13 million and a good year was about 15 million. It is interesting what we call bad times. When 13 million are sold, that is a bad economy, bad time, down market and 2 million more makes it a boom time, an upmarket, a good economy. I've never forgotten that and it makes me laugh when I think about it.

So, I thought of this and decided to write a little piece about it and went online to look up some current statistics. In an article in the New York Times dated March 20, 2008, I find a typically negative and inflammatory piece titled, "Dismal Year Is Forecast for Car Sales." Here's the link if you want to read it: Times Article. Frankly, it is funny to read this. It is so negative and in all its paragraphs of doom and gloom. It also states that the annual sales forecast has been cut to between 14.9 million and 15.2 million units. Now 15 million is a "dismal" year. Everything seems to be a crisis in today's world to the news media.

Think of this: The tide comes in and the tide goes out. It is predictable and it happens every day. Things are constantly changing and moving. When the tides goes out, we're not shocked by it, instead, we recognize it is a part of the way things are. The economy is a fluid thing as well. What's interesting to watch is how fast people are to accept the gloom and doom noise coming from the media. Pretty soon, they are telling their friends and relatives, cutting back on expenditures, etc. What power we give them! You tell a smart person they are stupid enough times and they will believe they are stupid.

I've seen this scenario so many times in my life now, that I just smile and watch it. I do what I can to spread the word of good news. Some time ago, I listened to a Tony Robbins tape and he was struggling with some changes that could make most people really upset, but he is an artist at asking himself questions that turns his life from depressed to inspired. As I recall, he would ask himself, "What's good about this?" That is such a powerful question. There is something good about every situation if you are willing to seek what it might be. Try asking that question and seeing the answers. There are many answers to this question. All of them will lead you away from the problem and onto solutions.

Gas is $4.00 a gallon. . . What's good about this?. . . Auto sales are down to 15 million. . . What's good about this?