After all the hoopla,

comes stark reality.

     You run a business?  You know what I’m talking about.  You’ve been there.  You get your 100th (or 1000th or 1000000th) customer and you pull out all the stops to celebrate.  But in the haze of the next day’s hangover, you realize the ugly truth that you need to confront reality by picking up the pace to double-speed. 

     After pausing to pat yourself on the head, you need to jump back on the ever-accelerating merry-go-round.  You also know that when I say I’m sorry to have to be the one to not pull the wool over your eyes, I mean it.   

     Really.  I know there are many masochistic media-gobbling types out there who actually like being duped and manipulated.  But the truth is that next week’s Presidential Inauguration–which may be historic for some questionable reasons– is not about to mark the turn of anything more monumental than its own celebration venues.    

     Those of us who have inherited or built business enterprises from scratch understand that we are facing a long and difficult road ahead.  In just a few days, we will be seating a new President and a new Vice President who have not only never run a business, but who have zero business experience between them and have never managed any entity of substance . . . not even a National Guard unit!    

     These two politicians haven’t a shred of experience with entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial thinking, attitude, or commitment to pursuits of enlightened self-interest.  While they may acknowledge that entrepreneurs built this country, they don’t have a clue that entrepreneurs are the true catalysts of change.  And yet they talk change.    

     As an owner or manager, your business is on the line.  No matter how recession-proof you think you are, you’re not.  No matter how bullet-proof you think you are, you’re not.    

     The only changes we, as business leaders, need are for government to do better at providing incentives that allow businesses to grow and thrive and create jobs . . . to do better at sealing and protecting our borders, and at preventing terrorist invasions of our homeland and cyberspace.  All the rest is talk.    

     A word to the wise, Messrs. Obama and Biden: BUSINESS is what makes America go, not educator tenures, not employee unions, not unchecked and unenforceable immigration policies, not foodstamps, not welfare rolls, not frivilous deep-pocket taxdollar funding of the arts, and not tax hikes to cover all the give-aways.    

     Failure to support and nurture America’s businesses is at the peril of America’s people. 

halalpiar                               # # # 

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