What The Economic Future Holds

It is anyone's guess. In the wake of the week I heard many negative diatribes from Monday Morning Quarterbacks who think the US is going to hell in a handbasket. Among these important and tell tale moments this week:

1. A sad situation regarding a disgruntled employee who turned guns on fellow co-workers in my home town in Silicon Valley. It ended with police having to shoot back and eventually leaving the tragedy in an end with the gunman dead. The news media focused on this with full force this week.

2. Obama's Jobs Bill - purported to be an economic pick up option - we will see what this leads to in the coming weeks.

3. We heard from the news media how the economy is "fragile" and how Europe is falling apart at the seams.

4. We lost a Tech Giant in the Silicon Valley - Steve Jobs - founder of Apple and a major reason so many of us carry an "ipad", an "i-phone", an itouch, or an ipod. The company he founded has a bright future ahead of it.

5. We kept hearing about angry protesters on Wall Street and thier greivances about the state of the economic malaise.

I could go on, but each story indicates an interesting reality about the economic circumstances - economic growth is not best manipulated by government, but begins at the entrepreneurship spirit. It is that characteristic of a small business owner driving new ideas and moving economic independence that must be harnessed.

The future of the economy may seem in the short term in doubt, but ingenuity, the poetic spirit of the entrepreneur taking a risk and rising above the challenges to make it, there continues to be amazing probabilities and possibilities for the future. The economy we are part of is a lesson for enjoying life. Each of the above stories shows how short-sighted individuals can be and how amazing some people are at changing the world - hence Steve Jobs, Apple, et al.

The power our economic future holds is up to us individually to find our path forward. But we need not fear the possibilities - instead making our own luck and building a path to the future is the greatest answer to short-sighted tendencies to forget the roots forged of earlier years of experience. Nothing opens the doors to greatness better than remaining positive. As long as entrepreneurs test thier ideas and make moves to meet those business opportunities head on - well there is no telling just what might make the economic future bright and steadfast indeed!

Comment by Suresh on October 7, 2011 at 7:45am: Good post Mike.

"Confidence" is a huge part of the whole equation and the single biggest thing that was shaken during this crisis. Unfortunately there is a growing feeling that the system is not fair and is rigged (whether in wall street, government etc) and that is a slippery slope. Growing up in India, I know that feeling is a detriment to whole lot of things particularly for entrepreneurs.

Having said all this, we still have one of the best places to start a business and succeed, so there should be no excuses. Its a matter of tyring and sticking with your path (whatever thay may be) and Steve Jobs is a great example.

Comment by bill josephson on October 7, 2011 at 11:17am: It all works as Mike says, provided many of the jobs created are done so in the US.

Absent a "Trickle Down" economic benefit from entrepreneurs to working Americans through a middle/upper middle class job as we had in the 1980's and 90's certain individuals may get wealthy employing cheap labor overseas, but our national prospects don't improve.

End result will be a fewer people paying the bulk of the taxes with more people not paying taxes being subsidized.

Comment by Mike Rasmussen on October 7, 2011 at 11:03pm: Thanks for your comments. Truly Steve Jobs is the best example of how an idea can bless so many and how entrepreneurship can changes the lives of hundreds of thousands and transform the prospects for millions. We need more like Steve Jobs in this world - there is no doubt about that. But entrepreneurship and the small business in my opinion are the most important aspects of a healthy economy. Another indicator is individuals need hope - the number 1 story I outline was a sad example of how some can lose thier perspective in this economic stressful time. But when hope is given by an entrepreneurial spirit and when individuals lift each other up with hope such tragedies can be avoided. Likewise, those of us who are in the staffing industry have a powerful role to play to advise others on how best to position themselves.

Comment by pam claughton on October 8, 2011 at 11:01am

Comment by pam claughton 1 second ago

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The economy is slowly improving but is still fragile. Each time the stock market has rallied in recent weeks, all it takes is a headline with doubts or news on Europe's worsening state, first Greece, now recent downgrade of Spain and Italy to send stocks plunging. Even yesterday with a jobs report that crushed expectations, the headlines still spun it negatively by focusing on the overall unemployment figure and stocks went the wrong way.

Steve Jobs was an inspiration and a visionary. His commencement speech to Stanford University was amazing. I agree that entrepreneurship and small business are key to a healthy economy. Every recession brings forth new entrepreneurs and small businesses as people find ways to shift gears and turn their passion and energy into exciting and successful new ventures.

Comment by bill josephson on October 8, 2011 at 12:01pm: I think we should be looking at jobs creation in a different prism than we did pre 2000. Steve Jobs' inventions initially were brought to fruition through jobs creation in the US because it started back in the 1980's.

Today, Jobs' positions created wouldn't be in the US due to the cheap cost of doing business overseas, expensive cost of doing business in the US, and the enormous future revenue streams are overseas as there's over 3 Billion people in India/Asia alone. Their economies are growing while ours stagnates. Their middle classes are catching up to and will then supplant ours. 70% of IBM's revenue comes from overseas, was 30% back in 1990.

The data is available. Connect the dots. We have 5 million fewer Corporate America jobs today than in 2000. That's where I live, business wise. These are the 50-250K jobs below VP level I've worked on. They're shrinking, and have been for 10 years. Yes, more entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, absolutely. But after they hatch their ideas will they bring them to market in the US, or jobs overseas? My sense is it's overseas.

Just my five cents.......