Tune Out to Tune In
I, the die-hard news junkie who can’t go without watching at least four to five hours of cable and network news a day, have turned off the TV set. The news seems too grim, the forecasts too dour and in the midst of reviving and reorienting my own career it seems better to keep the doom and gloom down to a minimum.
It may seem a naïve approach, afterall how can you learn to operate and succeed in the world, handle the rolling ups and downs of the economy, if you aren’t fully taking heed of what the experts and pundits are saying?
Because sometimes hearing about how terrible things are isn’t the best way to help make them better.
Don’t believe me? Look at the 44th president. Last year at this time, I was on the road full time covering the Obama campaign. The poll numbers were low, Washington was tut-tutting saying that the newbie from Chicago could never take down the experienced titan from New York. My political director gave me an assignment. Let’s do a story on how Obama’s earliest backers say that he needs to do something to change the course of his campaign, that his message of “turn the page” isnt’ working, that if he wants to win he needs to go on the attack.
He memorably told me, “He isn’t going to last if it keeps going this way.”
But the campaign did keep going, sharpening its message a little, but essentially sticking to the same strategy of talking to voters in town after town in Iowa, not going super negative against his opponent and essentially stuffing their ears to the negative stories around them.
It worked. The vision of those who put the Obama campaign together was clear, and they stuck to it no matter the naysayers. For entrepreneurs that’s an important lesson to hold onto in this economy — there’s always room for great ideas, opportunities, ways to earn a living and invent and contribute something new. But belief in yourself and your vision have to be steadfast no matter what outsiders are telling you.
Another secret of success to learn from the incoming president? He stopped listening to the news early on in the campaign because watching it was a distraction from the vision he was holding for himself and for his campaign.
So shut off the TV if you have to as you reach out to investors or craft a new business plan. If you want something believe in it, and this Thursday give thanks in advance it can happen. As we’ve all learned from this election – change goes only as big as what you can believe in.
