It's funny how certain things stick with you. Growing up my parents had a small framed quotation, cited to be made by the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It hung on some random, out of the way wall in our home. Although we always had a variety of interesting framed art hanging on the walls, I'm pretty sure this was the only quote featured in our house. The quote was:
"A sage seeks opportunity in difficulties. A fool sees difficulties in opportunities."
Over the years, this bit of advice has come to mind thousands of times. I'm not really one that holds on to these types of phrases but this one stuck for some reason. Somehow it infiltrated my mind, became a part of my own idealized personal identity and has given me perspective and motivation throughout my life.
These days with the economic dark clouds over our head I've found the advice come to mind many times. In my professional world, M&A activity and equity financings have certainly been impacted by the uncertainty of whats next for the economy. Uncertainly equals very slow moving and cautious or outright frozen buyers and investors. Encouragingly, In spite of the general mindset that prevails today, I do often hear a variation of Confucius' quote by executives, board members and investors. It's more words than action at this point but it's a first step.
The front desk staff of self storage providers can be preoccupied with their work.
Posted by: portland self storage | February 02, 2011 at 04:07 AM