CERTA BONUM CERTAMEN (Latin)
“Fight The Good Fight!”
(English translation)
Now how did I know that? It’s the motto for Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, where I received my undergraduate degree. Why is it headlining tonight’s blog post? Because it’s a well-intended slogan that speaks of strength in life, but is fairly ridiculous when it’s interpreted as a call to business owner action.
In fact, the American mindset of jam-it-down-their-throats competitiveness that rises from football fields nationwide is arguably the real root of all evil in business today. Waging war with the competition. Fighting the government. Beating up on your industry. Breaking down customer resistance. Smashing prior sales records. Kicking regulatory butts. Arguing tooth and nail.
Are we really all that angry with what’s around us? Are we going to bed and waking up mad? Or is it all a big act? Are we covering up our true feelings? Are we blindsiding ourselves out of commission? What do all these upset-feeling words communicate? Is business really that big of a battle?
YES. If you choose it to be. YES, if you choose to be too weak-willed to cut out your own path. YES, if you choose to think there’s no way to peaceably co-exist with other businesses. YES, if you choose to look around you and see only enemies. Everyone is NOT the enemy. Don’t choose that perception.
You already know FDR’s famous “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” quote. We’ve even hear cartoon character Ziggy proclaim “We should enjoy here while we’re here because there’s no here there.” Yet we persist at being fearful. We invest ourselves in neurotic and paranoiac behaviors that require us to take argumentative stances in our daily dealings.
How can you pull your spiraling business up out of this never-ending, bottomless hole of fear that things won’t work out, things won’t survive unless you do battle somewhere with something or someone, and conquer it, or her, or him, or they?
Here’s how: You start by acknowledging that the bad choices are choices. You start by realizing it’s just as easy to choose receptivity and positiveness, and cooperation, and business alliances. It’s just as easy to join forces as to fight forces, in fact it’s easier.
It is FEAR that’s threatening your business. And you are CHOOSING fear. Change the channel in your brain. Get rid of mental boxing, wrestling, and mixed martial arts. Get rid of non-stop news reports. Just shut ’em down. It’s a choice. Why would you choose to torture and stress yourself?
If any news event is major enough to warrant your attention, someone in your neighborhood will come knocking at your door to tell you. In the meantime, your news fixation is paralyzing you and your business. It’s locking your brain into negativity and preventing forward motion.
QUIT THE NEWS FOR JUST ONE WEEK! The world will not end (and in case it does, you won’t have wasted time worrying about it) and you stand to gain/re-gain consciousness. Don’t “fight the good fight” unless you mean to choose self-worth and life’s values over evil and stress. Your business needs you. Your family needs you. You need your SELF.
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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.
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Fighting the good fight is not something I necessarily equate with being angry with all that is around us, though some things are worse such as being indifferent to many things that are around us.
What is the good fight is subject to debate of course. Fighting in all instances is also a matter of choosing to battle, no less choosing what battles. But I assume that what is meant by fighting the good fight is something within the lines that, of all things, (being of Irish heritage)is something akin to the very way and the principles in which our very country was established and founded as well as (say) civil rights and matters such as these.
Fighting the good fight should not be interpreted to mean that one engages in acts of random and gratuitous violence or that aggression is always called for.
Thank you, Christopher, for amplifying some of the key poinhts made in this post. Certainly now, as we head into a period of what some are calling “Flash” attacks by what obviously (though unspoken in America’s mainstream media) are racially-provoked, small scattered mobs comprised of “victims” who think they are endlessly entitled to government handouts because they are too lazy to work for a living (I mean, that could make anyone unhappy enough to become violent, eh?), you make some lucid points. I appreciate your visit and the time you took to comment and reinforce the message. Return soon! Regards – Hal
Hal, I to am a IONA grad! Was trying to get the correct spelling of Certa Bonum Certanum…GOOGLED and got to your page! Surprise!
i grad in 1960 went on to JWThompson and Y&R and Meredith Corp and ABC then retired from NEWSWEEK in Los angeles…retired in Palos Verdes! Phew…long treck!
I love marketing but as a retired guy I get few call for my “expertise”!!!
2 Sons in Finance..daughter a lawyer…impressed yet?
But i want to pass on something I heard at some seminar in some wonderful resort as we were sent there by NEWSWEEK to celebrate some success…we had a speaker who said..
Never present..position! Wow! From that day forward I just didn’t tell Saatchi and Saatchi who we were at Newsweek but why they should buy us instead of TIME magazine! Just a tid-bit you mih=ght want to slip into some speech…we Gaels gotta stick together.
Position don’t (just) present! Tell them how…by advertising in Newsweek, they will sell more Luxus than if that ad was in Time…
You can tell I’m retired but I felt you might use this…Frank Malone
fxmalone1@mac.com
Hey Frank! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to find and read my post. After my first 12 years following IONA, I was in the same league with you (at Y&R and Foote Cone Belding and Wells Rich Greene) and never knew it . . . or that you were playing on the Saatchi & Saatchi team! The world gets smaller as it becomes more complicated. Anyway, I very much appreciate hearing from you, and hope you’ll visit this site again soon. Go Gaels! (and Merry Christmas!)- Best, Hal