Stanley F. Bronstein – Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

A Pessimist Sees The Difficulty In Every Opportunity And An Optimist Sees The Opportunity In Every Difficulty. (Winston Churchill)

Pessimist – A person who habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to be gloomy.

Optimist – One who usually expects a favorable outcome.  A person disposed to take a favorable view of things.

Difficulty - A trouble or struggle. A cause of trouble, struggle, or embarrassment.  Something that is hard to do, understand or surmount; an impediment or obstacle.

Opportunity – An appropriate or favorable time or occasion.  A situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal.  A good position, chance or prospect, as for advancement or success.

Are These Opportunistic Times Or Troubled Times?

To me, the answer is BOTH.

There is no doubt that as we enter 2009, almost the entire world is living in troubled times.

The question is:

Do we fall down on our hands and knees and cry about our troubles, OR do we pick ourselves up and look for the opportunities being created as a result of these troubles?

Once again, the answer is:  BOTH

How I Feel About This

I think this is what the French refer to as Fin de siècle

Fin de siècle translates as ‘end of the century’.  This is a closing of an era and the beginning of a new one.

Traditional ways of doing things are coming to an end.  Just look around you.

Almost everyone uses a cell phone and fewer and fewer people are using landlines.

Video stores are closing up all around you while Netflix still seems to be doing quite a nice business over the internet and through the mails.

Stores are closing up all over the place.  More and more things are being purchased online than ever before.

In politics, the United States elected a new president (Barack Obama) who embraced these technological changes and used them to his advantage.  His opponents (mainly Hilary Clinton and John McCain) did not use these technologies the same way and in the case of Hilary Clinton, that might have been the difference between his winning as opposed to her.

As Bob Dylan said:  The times they are a ‘changin.

What I’ve Seen In My Life

I’m nearly 50 years old and I’ve seen quite a few changes in my life.

I look back at the way things were done when I was growing up and the way they’re being done now.

• In my first job out of college, we had to use carbon paper and hand type our projects.    My employer had been doing it that way for over 20 years and the process had to be completed, manually each year.  During the second year, I convinced him to buy a personal computer (about $10,000 at the time) and that year I typed everything into the computer.  The reports were neater and they were more accurate.  The third year, I simply took the information from the second year and made a few changes and poof, my work was done in 1/3 the time.  In the fourth year, I moved on and started a company with my older brother.  My employer did NOT hire anyone to replace me to do my work, as the computer had made it so easy, that he was able to do my job himself and not have to pay another employee.

• When I was a kid, we didn’t even have cassette players, CDs, DVDs, or anything like that.  I used to get in trouble every week because I wanted to watch my TV shows and they came on at the time my parents wanted me to go take a bath.  I would either miss my show or my parents would get upset.  Nowadays, you could simply DVR the show, download it, rent it, whatever.  That sure would have saved a lot of arguments.

• I remember when the Sony Walkman came out in 1979 / 1980.  The story is that it was built specifically for Sony’s co-chairman so he could listen to opera during his frequent long plane trips.  One man had a “perceived” need and was in a situation to have that need fulfilled by his company.  Think how much things have changed since then.  You can take one little small device and put an entire library of music and videos and more on that one device.

• In my life, I’ve seen the space program basically started from scratch.  We’ve put people on the moon, built space stations, sent probes to other planets, etc.

I could probably go on for hours.

What’s Coming

What’s coming is change.  In some areas, the old way of doing things just simply isn’t going to work any more.

You used to have to go to a bookstore to order a book.  Now you can order it online in the middle of the night from your own desk.

One person (in this case me), can do more work (and higher quality work) than 10 people used to be able to do 30 years ago.

Newspaper reporters during the Vietnam war used to have to have their handwritten stories personally flown out of the area in order to have them sent to their editors.  Now they communicate instantaneously with cell phones, emails, texting, video conferencing, etc.

Grandparents would get to see their grandkids once or twice a year when they came to visit.  Now people just put webcams on their computers and they can talk, face to face, as often as they want; virtually for free.

More of this is coming AND it’s going to happen faster.

The current worldwide economic crisis has simply brought things to a head.

The old way of doing things is beginning to come to an end.  There are endless opportunities out there, IF WE RECOGNIZE THEM AND EMBRACE THEM.

We must position ourselves to be successful, and that’s where the Laws of Positioning come into play.  Over the coming year you’re going to hear me talks about these Laws and you’re going to hear me do it a lot.

These are tough times, BUT they are creating opportunities of the like that the human race has NEVER seen before.

Stay tuned.  In the meantime, here is some recommended reading below.

SOME RECOMMENDED READING

Laws of Positioning #68 – Position Yourself To Be Optimistic

What Do You Think?

What do you think about these thoughts? Please share your comments below.

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