It is now three days after our historic election. Personally, I was absolutely ecstatic about the outcome but I have also reached out to my Republican friends who, I guessed, would be feeling as badly as I did after both of the last two elections. They were. One of them told me, “I went to bed Tuesday night with a feeling of dread and fear in my stomach. I am scared for the future of our country.” Those are the EXACT same feelings and thoughts I had after both of the last two elections. Maybe we are not so different after all.
I think it is time that we encourage our candidates to spend more time intelligently discussing the issues during a campaign and less time mud-slinging and trying to create fear in their constituents about the other candidate. When the “other” person is elected that fear hangs on leaving a deep stain on the unconscious of the country. It cripples our ability to come together after an election. How can we hope to solve problems when half the country is scared to death when the other party wins?
I for one am STRONGLY hoping that we can come together, in a bi-partisan way, over these next four years and find solutions TOGETHER for our very real and challenging problems. We need to listen to one another, find reasonable compromises, and move forward in tandem. I voted for Barak Obama because I feel he was the best candidate to spearhead this kind of bi-partisan effort. I intend to keep my candidates informed of my concern that my Republican friends not be left out of the equation as I feel I was during the past administration.
Our economic crisis is real. The global warming crisis is real. The fact that we have been in an expensive war that has emptied our coffers and put us billions of dollars in debt while disenfranchising us from the countries that used to be our friends, is real. The fact that millions of people in this country don’t have adequate healthcare, savings, retirement, and income is real. The fact that people are losing their homes to foreclosure is real. We have to do something about these problems as quickly as we can and we won’t be able to do it if half of the country forces an agenda down the throat of the other half (as has happened all through the past 8 years) or that the other half waits impatiently, gathering forces, to vote their side into office at the next election. We have to do better than this if we want to have a country to pass down to the next generation.
The truth is that nine years ago I was working with small business owners who, with reasonable and even moderate amounts of marketing, were finding business. This has not been true the past four years. Many of the small business owners I work with have been struggling hard and those who have given up their dream of being self employed have run smack into the problem of trying to find a job while competing with all the rest of us who lost jobs because of the economy. People who have employees are struggling to keep them, pay them, provide healthcare and retirement savings options for them. Where are those employees supposed to go when their employer finally has to release them? We can’t keep going like this. All these grassroots people did not need the financial crash in October to tell them our country is in trouble. They already knew and were already living with the anxiety and fear.
And, of course, this has been a TERRIBLE time for Marketing Introverts whose fear and dread of marketing and sales keeps them from doing as much marketing as they should do anyway.
I would like to end on a note of hope. I have worked with people for years who have taken a stand and, with the help of others, have climbed out of a hole that threatens to swallow them. I believe that it is not too late for us to solve the problems I listed above.
I have two quotes that I have posted on doors in my house that inspire me every day. The quote on my office door says “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” Author unknown. Regardless of whether your favorite candidate won or lost, let’s begin TODAY to create a new ending to our problems. Regardless of who you blame, it is time to put the past as much aside as we can, and focus on creating a better tomorrow for ourselves, our children, and every other person and creature who lives on this planet.
The other quote, the one that hangs on my bedroom door says “To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny.” We have Alan Cohen to thank for this stirring reminder.
And you Marketing Introverts out there – I still tell you it is possible to change from someone who fears marketing to someone who is confident and capable of finding new customers and clients for their business. Let me help you!
Let us begin now to change our world! Let’s do it together!
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