Dear Chamber of Commerce Members,
It has been said that, we here in the Mini-Cassia area, are about two years behind the rest of the country economically. Some say that is a bad thing and some say it is a good thing. All I know is that I still need to pay my bills and make a living here in the Mini-Cassia area.
What does it take to be a positive productive business in 2011 with the economy that we find ourselves in? Is the answer to hype up the electronics, faster computers, smart phones, etc...? Is it the human element and we need to consume energy drinks to keep us performing at optimum levels, or taking it to the next level.
A manager was promoted to a position in the company. He had over 15 co-workers. The manager was interested in optimum performance so he pushed the workers hard and told them to keep the machines running as production was the most important thing to him. Maintenance was not a priority. The numbers showed that his department was profitable and the company’s production and overall profit soared. Soon, that manager was promoted up the ladder, and another person was promoted to take his position. What the newly promoted manager found was a tired crew and machines in badly need of repair. Production went down and costs went up as machines broke down and had to be repaired. What the spread-sheet shows and who the overall best manager is may not be as easy as looking at the results on paper.
Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous quote: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
I believe that some of the challenging times of our history, such as the Progressive Era (google it – you might find it interesting) were times when Americans were innovative, and developed different strategies to carry on their work. I appreciated John Webster’s article he wrote on economic development (www.minicassiachamber.com/news/economic-outlook.html). He mentioned a couple of examples in our country’s history and what they did to overcome challenges of economic woes.
Change is not necessarily a criticism of how things were done in the past. It is recognition of new opportunities in the future! New inventions, better processing, time saving procedures, etc… are but a few of the things that come from challenging times. Don’t be afraid to try, failure that doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, or so I have been told!
One of the characteristics of a productive person is "resilience". Resilience is the ability to recover from misfortune or adjust to change. Everyone will have misfortune and change every day. How long we choose to allow it to affect our productivity is up to us. Be resilient today.
As the story goes of the attempts of Thomas Edison to invent, he was working with an assistant to build a light bulb that would sustain light for a period of time and they succeeded then the assistant broke the bulb. After considerable time and effort to repeat the process, who do you think handled the bulb? Yes, it was his assistant.
Warren Buffet once said, "The truth is, everything that has happened in my life...that I thought was a crushing defeat at the time, has turned out for the better."
The Mini-Cassia Chamber of Commerce is working diligently in various areas that will be disclosed at the annual installation banquet on February 10, 2011 at 7 pm.
I would ask you to become more involved with the chamber if you are not already. Volunteer to assist on a committee -- ask tough questions and bring up tough issues. If we don’t flush out the issues, then they may never get dealt with. I will put out this challenge to the first (non-board member) who calls the Chamber office with a list of events taking place in the Mini-Cassia area in February, will get a prize from the visitor center.
I look forward to listening to you, please feel free to email me ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) or get in touch with me if there is anything that YOUR Mini-Cassia Chamber can do for you or your business. On February 10 2011, you will have the opportunity to attend the Chamber Installation Banquet; there we will have displays of each of our committees. At each of the displays there will be a sign up for each of the committees. If there is one that you’d like to be a part of, please consider making the decision now to help to make a difference in one or more committees. As members of these committees generally only requires a few hours of your time, we all know that the more we put into something the more we get out of it, but those hours combined can accomplish amazing results! Here’s a big “Thank you” to those that have gone before and done so much, and here’s to us to accomplishing great things in 2011!
