What’s Coming Next? 2010 and Beyond

Friends, Family and Colleagues,

Happy Holidays. Having spent the last week with a one-year-old and watched him
actually take his first steps, I’m totally focused on the future. If you know me
at all, you know I am an optimist and a pragmatist: I always think we have some
ability either to make things better or to come to a greater understanding of
things as they are.

I woke up this morning to watch the Senate vote on the health care reform bill.
No, it’s not the bill I wanted. And it’s not the bill most of you wanted. It’s
probably not the bill almost anyone wanted — except people who have been
totally locked out of health insurance because they have pre-existing
conditions.

Those people got help. And that’s a big deal. Most pre-existing conditions are
chronic and serious, so we are on the way to helping some of the most vulnerable
among us. Forget the bargains, the tradeoffs, the earmarks, the hidden taxes,
the lack of cost control, and the fact that Washington is institutionally
corrupt. Some people will get help. So it’s not all bad.

Now. Get over it. On to the next event.

The next event is an economy that supports people. Government can’t give that to
us. It can only back off and let us give it to ourselves. If you are looking to
do something to help the economy, consider the following resolutions in 2010:

1) Start something. A business, a non-profit, a service. Do it yourself, and
own it fully. Even if you are only selling the brownies you bake at home, do it.
The only difference between you and Larry Page/Sergey Brin is that they started
something because they thought they could. Or they were too young and dumb to
think they couldn’t. You would be surprised how the market greets new offerings.

2)Become an angel. If you don’t want to run a business yourself, lend money or
invest in someone who does. Too many of us with modest means sit back and bitch
about the stock market and the real estate market. Well, get out. Don’t be
passive. Put your money and your effort where your passion is. I’ve got
companies who need as little as $5000 or $25,000 to get off the ground. Banks
aren’t lending. Why don’t you? Why do you think developing companies are
developing while we stagnate? It’s because people lend small amounts of money to
each other in those countries — outside the corrupt banking system.

3)Take care of yourself and your family. Reduce your dependence on the health
care system, the banking system, the legal system. Barter and trade with
friends. Be a part of a trust network. Accept the fact that the government takes
all our money and sends it off to wars we don’t want, and move on. Other
governments do the same thing. When I was a kid, my father’s tax rate was 90%.
So what? We still had 10% left, and I never heard my dad complain.

4)If you really want to change the system, get involved in one of the many
movements on both sides: the tea party movement, which is largely aimed at the
tax code; the gay rights movement, which is trying to get same-sex marriage
legalized; the Change Congress movement, which is trying to get rid of lobbyists
and campaigns financed by corporations; the transparency in government movement.

More pointedly: do something, anything that suits you. Don’t just sit back and
bitch. In the past few months, I’ve heard all the Monday morning quarterbacking
i can stand from people on the left and the right who hate Obama. Well, guess
what? Obama uprooted his family and ran for office. He got elected and spent a
year cleaning up various messes and failing to clean up others, sleeping in
strange beds and fearing assassination. I’m sure he learned a lot, and I’m sure
on some days he wished he had never run. (I bet Michelle wishes that every day).
Yeah, his presidency might be a failure. And some businesses might be failures.
And Bill Gates’ effort to eradicate AIDS might be a failure.

But at least they try.

Season’s Greetings and a big smile to you from Baby Dashie and his five teeth.

Francine Hardaway, Ph.D, Stealthmode Partners
http://blog.stealthmode.com
http://twitter.com/hardaway
http://www.linkedin.com/in/francinehardaway

“The stumble throws us forward.”

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode