Doom and gloom never win. In the last few weeks all the talking heads on the news shows and the cable shows, and all the newspapers are predicting that the financial industry is going to collapse. The big banks – Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, Citigroup – they’re all in trouble. Our financial system is going to collapse!
Here we are in an election year, and the Democrats want to make it sound just as bad as they can, and I don’t blame them. Then we have the dirty short-sellers – short-sellers have been a problem in our markets for years. They basically go unregulated and they are free to start rumors. And these rumors drive down the price of these stocks. Can you imagine that Bank Of America’s stock price dropped down a week or 10 days ago to $18 and change a share? The biggest bank in the world, a company that is financially sound, facing a plunge in their stock value because of the rumor mongers!
Greg Norman’s performance in the 2008 Open Championship in England should go down as one of the most impressive and incredible athletic performances of all time. And you ask why? Because he was playing four rounds of golf in the most difficult conditions that anybody has ever seen in any kind of championship format. The wind was howling 25 to 40 miles per hour for four days. The greatest players in the world were not able to master this course. And yet, Greg Norman, at age 53, who really hasn’t played competitive golf for ten years, did the unthinkable – he was leading the British Open in the fourth round, right up until the 11th hole of this tournament.
What do you say to an employee who wants a raise now? Do you say, “NO! Times are tough. Our revenues are down. Our profit margins are down. I cannot give you a raise!” That’s not an acceptable response. If you’ve got valuable employees that you really want to keep, then you cannot give that response. If you make that employee mad, they might quit or become non-productive. Trying to replace that employee is going to be so expensive, and if they stay but are not inspired because you turned them down for a raise, they are not going to be as productive or as valuable to you. So have a little sensitivity towards them when they say they need a raise.
These are tough times. Not only are they tough times, but everywhere we look it’s doom and gloom. Read the newspapers. Read the editorials. Look at MSNBC or Fox News at night and they are going to talk about the market going down, mortgages are a mess, real estate won’t recover for two years, joblessness is up, and we see no end in sight. It’s easy to be despondent. It’s easy to be discouraged. It’s easy to just want to feel sorry for ourselves, but this is the opportunity of a lifetime for you and me. This is a time for the tough…for the mentally tough…for the people who will not give into the conditions of the day, because your competitors and so many other people in business are going to slack off. They are going to be in the turmoil and stupor of depression and discouragement, and they just won’t be able to do anything.
I went to see Frankie Valli a few weeks ago in concert. It was a great setting – right here in the heart of Buckhead in Atlanta, smack in the middle of one of our nice residential sections of the city. We have an amphitheater called Chastain Amphitheater. Chastain has been here for many years, might seat 4,000 people or so — all outdoors, and very popular in the summertime. You can spread out your food on tables, drink a little wine, and listen to some good music in this beautiful setting. And I got to listen to my favorite artist of all time – Frankie Valli. It wasn’t Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – he had four young guys up there singing with him and a band behind him with about 13 people, and it was the greatest concert I have ever been to in my life. Frankie Valli is 74 years old, and he sounds great!
We all have times in our lives when we witness an event that is life changing – an event that is spectacular. Yesterday in London England at the Wimbledon Championship, we all saw the greatest tennis match that was ever played by two of the greatest players who have ever played: Rafael Nadal, 22 years old, and Roger Federer, 26.
They played a match that lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes, but it spanned 7 hours and 14 minutes. It endured three rain delays. It was the longest singles final in Wimbledon history, played by these two men, two young men of extraordinary talent. We watched them hit forehands and backhands, serves and returns. We watched them run that court. And while I watched this match, I couldn’t help but marvel at what is inside of each one of these young men. What gave them the resiliency — the will to continue on — when it seemed that all was lost?
Would you believe that the price of gas is over $4 a gallon and moving towards $5 a gallon? You know, I see that happening and I watch the reports on the news. This price increase is affecting all of us, some more than others. It affects every aspect of our lives and that price increase is reflected in what we pay for everything! And because this is having such a dramatic impact, we are actually seeing a cause and effect happen.
I read recently that for the first time in 20 years our use of gas is down dramatically and is continuing to go down, which tells us what? We are adaptable. We are going to find that we can maybe not drive our cars to as many places as we did before. We’ll ride bicycles, we’ll ride motorcycles or scooters, we’ll walk, we’ll combine our errands, we’ll not take trips because we have got to adapt. We will do all these things because we can not afford to travel and drive as much as we did before. This cause and effect is happening in America….the land of plenty. And we are really adapting. For the first time in 20 years, and I find this astounding, we are saying, “No — I am not going to pay this price” and we are reducing the demand for gasoline in this country by not using as much.
