Recession, Or Just The Decrease Before The Increase?

Well earlier today a gas station just down the street from me the I frequent often got robbed. This got me to thinking about the "recession" that we are in and how it is affecting people. For as long as I have lived in this house (which is many years now) there has never been a robbery in the neighborhood that I know of. As the times have gotten worse it has put a lot of pressure on a lot of people. I, myself have fallen under this pressure. Being out of a job right now and having no real source of income has really hurt me.

With this being said, on the other hand I am extremely fortunate. There are many people out there that are in far worse shape than I am. I am fortunate that I do not have a wife and kids to support (not that I wouldn't love to have a wife and kids), I don't have a mortgage on a house to pay for, I don't have a car payment to make, electric bills, I could go on. It is somewhat disheartening seeing so close to home how troubled this man must have been to make the life-altering decision to rob this gas station because he felt like he had no hope and that was his only choice. It is sad to think that that man's life will be changed forever because of one decision, he will probably spend time in jail, have a record, then have an even harder time getting a job when he gets out. I don't live in the bad part of Dallas, so robbery is not a "normal" thing for me. I think that is why this is so strange that it would happen in my own neighborhood. 

"With recession, must come reform" These words have been, I guess you could say, floating around in my head the last hour or so. I don't know why I thought of that or if I heard it somewhere, but it seems to me to make sense. Reform defined by Merriam-Webster is "1 a: to put or change into an improved form or condition b: to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses". The Great Depression was a terrible terrible time, but eventually we had to come out of it and the economy finally improved as I think that we will do in this bad economic time. If we could come out of such a terrible economic state and still thrive as a nation, I see no reason why we can't do that again when we are not nearly as bad off as then. I think of the economic state we are in right now as a sort of valley, and as with any valley, if you just look up you will see the mountain top. The point being that as long as you look up and keep moving forward you will eventually find yourself out of the valley and on top of the mountain.

Do not fear the times that we are in. Times are always changing or else it would just be called "Now" there would be no past or future.

 I encourage anyone who reads this not to be too worried about what tomorrow will bring or even next week or next month. Just put your trust in God and he will provide, even when nothing seems to be there. As I am writing this my own words are coming back to bite me because I know that I have not wholeheartedly done this myself. Everyday is a learning and growing process physically and in your walk with God. I pray Lord, that you will help me to trust you more with every aspect of my life, help me hear you and obey you with childlike faith and anyone who reads this let them have the same faith and hope for the future. Amen.

-Danny

Success or Failure

"it doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because…

All that matters in business is that you get it right once." -Mark Cuban, Owner of Dallas Mavericks. www.Blogmaverick.com

I just want to start out by saying that if you have not read Mr. Cuban's blog I highly encourage it. Alot of it has to do with business but the quote above just stuck out to me. In his most recent posts "Success and Movivation pts 1,2,3, and 4 he talks about how he got started in the computer business and motivating himself. Reading his post  has really encouraged me that if you really want it anyone can be successful in whatever they do. He talks about how when he first started in the computer business he knew nothing about what he was going to be selling, but he was motivated and he stayed up all night reading product manuals and learning about the software and he ended up being successful because he knew the products and had the will to succeed. 

If you look back through time, many of the big name people of today started out with nothing, just an idea. Take Bill Gates for example. This nerdy looking computer guy that had an idea for a personal computer and now he is one of (if not the) richest men in the world. I believe that the key for anyone that wants to go anywhere and be successfull is to have that type of motivation and determination that people like Mark Cuban or Bill Gates have. Anyone can say "I want to be a millionare or billionare" but only a small percentage of people have the determination to do it, no matter what the cost, no matter what the risk. It is easy for people to get the mindset that Oh, I could never become a millionare but really you are only putting that limitation on yourself. I don't want to limit this to just your financial success, but taking that mindset can apply to any aspect of your life, Weither its something small like getting in better shape, or big like getting through college.

The big truth about the quote in the beginning of this post is noone cares about your failures and NEITHER SHOULD YOU. You have to focus on whats ahead and the task you have in front of you. Nothing that has any major significance in history was accomplished easily

-Danny

There and Back Again

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." -Bilbo Baggins, "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien

These words that were spoken to Frodo from Bilbo in the book "The Hobbit" have been stuck in my head for the last couple hours as I was out driving around at 4:00 AM today because I couldn't sleep. I can't help but think about them and how true the first part of that sentence is. Especially in times like today with things like the swine flu, or mad cow disease, West Nile Virus, or whatever the disease of the month is. The media takes these things and completely blows them out of proportion, that is if they even exist (which sometimes I doubt). My point is, that yes going out your door every morning is dangerous, but what is the point of living if you do not take some risks? I believe that when Tolkien wrote this it was much more innocent in context than any diseases or being hit by a car or anything like that, but more so that just being willing to go out your door. You never know where life will take you. If you are not willing to take the risk, you may never find love, make mistakes and learn from them, have your heart broken, learn new things, go places you have never been before. Yes some of those things come with terrible burdens that may be hard to live with, but in the end you hopefully become a better man. Take Bilbo for example, before Gandalf came along he had never been outside of his little town "The Shire" but he took that step outside his door and outside of his town and had all kinds of adventures, fought dragons, came across The Ring, and had to deal with the burden that came with the ring.

The World is a scary place, especially today. There is no telling where you will go or what will happen to you every time you go outside but you must take that first step of faith or you will never experience anything. For only being 21 I have been through a lot of good experiences and plenty of bad ones. I know that I am more fortunate that a lot of kids my age who grew up in broken houses or with domestic violence but I have made my share of stupid mistakes and I try to learn something from every one of those. I have a long way to continue growing as a man and the only way that I can continue doing that is going out of my door every day and live my life.

-Danny