As I write this I’m looking out the window at 6″ of wet heavy snow.  Go up a couple thousand feet higher (about 9,000 feet) and there is 12″ – 18″ with more still falling heavily.  It’s incredible to watch as dollar-sized flakes drift slowly toward earth, relentlessly covering everything in their path.  I have to admit I’m grateful I don’t live in the valley where it’s just raining.  I love the snow.  Everything’s renewed.  Brown and yellow become pure white.  Evergreen branches sag under the weight and you can’t help but listen for sleigh-bells.  Those bushes that died (or went dormant) in the frosts of October are now covered with a beautiful, gleaming, glittering white blanket that is pure, clean and gorgeous beyond description.  I’m sorry, but you can’t tell me this is all some kind of big cosmic accident.

But back to what we’re about here.  I was buying lumber at a lumber yard up here on the mountain for a project the other day and asked the owner how business was in light of the real estate and financial problems we face in our country.  His answer surprised me.  ”We had the best year in our history,” was his reply.  When I asked how that was possible, he said, “We don’t make our money off large lumber packages for new home construction, although we sell a few of those.   We make our money one 2 X 4 at a time for people who have small projects.  With the market being soft like it is, people are remodeling and making do with what they have instead of building something new, bigger and more expensive to own and maintain.  So this is good for us.”

Contrast that with the conversation I had with the owner of a lumber yard in the valley.  When I asked him the same question his response was completely different.  ”We don’t have a single new construction project going right now.  That’s been our bread and butter since we opened, and this year we have nothing.  I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep the doors open if something doesn’t change.”  I asked him if he thought he could make it on remodels, like my friend up on the mountain.  ”Not really,” he said.  ”Everything we’ve done and everything we do from the way we built our building to our inventory selection to everything in between, has been done with new construction in mind.  No, we really can’t change.”

What?!?!!  We can’t change so we’re just going to sit idly by — hoping something will change — until we go under?  You’ve got to be kidding me!  What happened to scrapping for every last dollar?  What happened to doing whatever it takes to make your business go?  Seriously.  What even happened to the old college try?  Or looked at another way, if you won’t do it for yourself won’t you do it for all your employees?  What are they going to do?  Who’s going to feed their families?  Good grief!!!!

To say, “This is what we do, and we’re going to keep on doing it until we die,” is a great way to hasten your own demise.  Finding your way through the business world (especially for small, start-up businesses) is like finding your way through a maze.  You try something you have confidence in.  If it works, you continue with it until it doesn’t work anymore.  If it doesn’t work, you try something else until you find something that does.

Along that same train of thought, something that works today might not be great five years from now (like my friend with the lumber yard in the valley.)  And when the results from your great idea start to taper off, you start looking for its replacement.  You’re not being “unfaithful” to your original idea, you are simply adapting to the needs of an ever-changing marketplace.  The market is dynamic not static — even more true today than at any time in recent memory.  I mean, watch the stock market for heaven’s sake  – “The biggest single day in the history of the market.”  then, “The worst one day drop in the history of the market.”  All within ten days.   And the gains and losses that used to take months or even years to unravel now happen literally overnight.  The whole economic system is under attack from within.  This is the most volatile market we’ve faced in the last fifty years (maybe ever.)  Wild swings and complete unpredictability are the order of the day. 

What are you doing about it?

I’ve mentioned before that the Chinese character for crisis is made up of two other characters — danger and opportunity.  It’s true there is tremendous opportunity right now for the person who can control emotions that want to run amok and for the person who can think clearly and analytically in times of stress.  But on the other hand, there is severe danger ahead for those who operate off knee-jerk reaction.  As it stands now, nothing is as we knew it before.  The world of business is going to re-define itself in the coming months and years.  Those who adapt to the new model will be successful.  Those who don’t will die.

Don’t go down without a fight.  Make adjustments.  If they don’t work, make others.  This doesn’t have to be the end of your business.  Yes, you’re going to have to leave your comfort zone and step out into the unknown, but at the end of it all, your business will be stronger and so will you.  Don’t give up.  There are two choices — adapt or die.  Make certain you choose wisely.