The photo above, from Lucca, Italy, is one of the better looking carousels or merry go rounds that I have seen. This picture helps get a point across. Lately, reading the newspaper and even blogs here at active rain, many people are worried about their businesses. When things are tight, that is a logical reaction.

I spent many decades owning and operating a broadcasting corporation and, in that time, so many things changed in that industry -- good and bad -- that it makes current times look like merely a spring shower. Remember the late 1970's? Regardless, when I first got started owning a business and realized that I was responsible for feeding the families of my employees day in and day out, I received good advice from some wise old sages who had been through it all before. They knew the ins and outs of business and the heavy responsibility it can place on a person.

One man from Greece became affluent by starting a chain of restaurants. He described business best, in my view, and he put it this way: "Business is a dance. Sometimes you dance really well, other times you can barely put one foot in front of the other. When that happens, you just have to keep on dancing somehow. If you don't keep on dancing then you will go out of business. If you persevere, and keep on dancing despite the odds, you will succeed." By the way, this man is still doing well today, ten years after I sold my corporation to a conglomerate.

An owner of a car dealership said: "Some months I lose more money than I make -- just servicing all the loans on the inventory. There are other months where I rake in the bucks. The important thing, at least to the bank, is that I end up making more money by the end of the year than what I lost during the year."

One business man said: "Business marketing is like the ocean. On a daily basis you create goodwill and put all of your messages in bottles and put them in the ocean. Most of the bottles are lost forever, but some of them end up in the hands of people who need your services."

Since I posted the photo above, I will add my own custom message: "Business is like a merry go round. You have to keep on turning and doing what you can to make your services and products stronger during the difficult times. If you do that, you will be rewarded in better times."

Steven L. Smith

Bellingham WA Home Inspections