Turn Great Depression 2.0 into Great Opportunity 2013

It never ceases to amaze me what we hear when reading the paper or turning on the news. Words like catastrophe, crisis and calamity roll off the lips of the pundits on each station. Of course, you might find a found pet or some heartwarming story at the end of the newscast or buried somewhere in the paper, but most news media is riddled with stories of unemployment, debt, war and anything else that feels impossible to overcome and inevitably devastating.

Welcome to the Great Depression 2.0. I'm not interested in fear-mongering, but I am interested in helping you see the current financial market for what it is so you can navigate through the confusion and thrive, despite the headlines that would indicate thriving isn't an option.

Amid the meltdown, fear, chaos and confusion, I want to propose a radically different and counterintuitive option. Most people hear all of the horrible financial news thrown at us daily and feel upset or nervous. And while recessionary, or even depressionary, markets can be devastating for some, they are equally filled with opportunities to increase your wealth.

I emphasize the word equally. I'll restate that again, just in case you thought that last sentence must have been a typo: recessionary markets are a great time to increase your wealth. In fact, during the first Great Depression, only a third of the country lost wealth, lowered their standard of living, lost their job, etc. Another third maintained their standard of living, while another third actually increased their wealth. The purpose of this article is to help you be one of the third who increases their wealth during this current period of market uncertainty.

If anything, the economic volatility only highlights or exacerbates the behaviors and patterns that people tend to have even in good economic conditions. In many cases, the economic strains can even be healthy when it causes us to reexamine our unsustainable, unproductive, or non value-producing behaviors.

I recently had a conversation with Dr. Patrick Gentempo in a one-day immersion in my office in Salt Lake City. Combined, we've worked with thousands of chiropractors, organizations and individuals. We both work with individuals who are struggling right now, as well as those who are experiencing higher levels of growth and success than ever. As we talked about what separated those groups, we found that we both agreed on a set of traits or behaviors that were clearly common in both groups.

The Strugglers Vs. The Thrivers

First, let's look at focus. In our struggling group, as you might guess, their focus is on the never ending barrage of bad news. They spend unproductive hours watching the stock market, checking the Internet or watching the news to confirm their already entrenched belief of how bad things are. Add to that the time spent in unproductive conversations and discussions that conjure up feelings of fear and helplessness. As they project that fear on everyone else, it's no wonder that they experience others as being fearful. We hear comments like, "insurance companies are killing me." Or, "people don't have money for chiropractic care like they used to." This doesn't have to be you.

Our thriving clients, on the other hand, are taking a different approach. They certainly aren't sticking their head the sand, pretending that none of the financial catastrophes are real. They are often watching the same news programs and reading the same articles, however, it is with a completely different focus. They see that as they clearly understand the changes that are occurring in people's values and priorities, they can capitalize on an incredible opportunity to realign with what people want and value. One person's bad news is another person's opportunity.

First, it is imperative to understand that we are part of a production economy. In the past, employees and businesses have created a time and effort mentality that can cultivate an entitlement mentality and bad habits leading to lost production. Look to your most productive team member and during these uncertain times, let them know how valuable they are and give them a raise.

Even look to create incentive type compensation (depending on your state laws to reward them taking part in improving the bottom line). Build a culture where every team member understands that same entrepreneurial responsibility of maximizing the value we create with our customers, whoever our customers are. The question at hand is: what can you do to be productive, proactive and to lend your abilities in a way that creates maximum value for others? In this approach, it becomes critical to create more value for your customer than you consume and therefore increase your bottom line.