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Postmortem 2009 – Like most of us, we can act as if 2009 did not happen and that last year was just a bad dream. We would like to believe that we were hibernating in 2009 like Han Solo in the movie Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and we had just been recently thawed out from our nightmares. Sounds like a sci-fi movie, hardly.

A few days ago, I was sitting in my living room watching one of my usual TV stations (ESPN, Travel Channel, Discovery, Food Network, & CNN) when anAllstate Commercial came on. A quote caught my attention as I was intently researching on the web. I remembered the quote vividly from the actor’s distinct voice. Dennis Haysbert had a touching line when he said, “…Was it a great recession or was it a recession that made us great.” Now, I know it’s a little cheesy but the nostalgic and rather sentimental writer had a good point!

We (The US) have always been a culture infatuated with fixing and problem-solving issues that painstakingly inhibit our success. BOLD COMMENT ALERT – However, there are company cultures out there during a time of adversity that point fingers, avoid accountability, and complain without taking initiatives. They generally try to fix the negatives and are often blind to the unseen benefits of a disastrous situation. They also rarely enhance their success and/or seek opportunities to build on their character because they are so busy absorbing in their self-pity.  Smart and mature companies that can see past their adversities will grow and become stronger from their learned lessons.

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