There is so much information floating around about how bad it is “out there” that it’s enough to scare you into never leaving your house again.

We seem to have forgotten that the economy has been bad before and we’ve survived. There has been an ebb and flow to the cycles of business for as long as there has been exchange of goods in the marketplace. It goes up and it goes down. Around and around. Season after season.

We seem to have forgotten that in the scope of history, it wasn’t that long ago that people left their home country to reach a new world of opportunity. They blazed trails into the wilderness. Instead of focusing on how bad it was or how there wasn’t a governmental agency out there prepared to underwrite their endeavors and make everything OK, or extended unemployment benefits, they pulled up their boots, focused on the positive and the possibilities and got to work. They made a way when there seemed like there was no way.

We seem to have forgotten that it was only about 100 years ago that the majority of the population was self employed. They didn’t wait for someone else to assign their value to a salary and a desk; they looked for the needs in the marketplace and came up with creative ways to fill them.

I think it’s pretty obvious that “things” will never go back to where they were 5 years ago. But rather than let the newspapers and pundits write your story for you, take control of your life and write your own story. Don’t you think you’d do a better job than some corporate CEO whose focus is his own company’s bottom line?

Once upon a time, there was you. Where are you going from here?