Regardless of the outcome and drama of the Fiscal Cliff, in 2013 the job of the small business owner remains the same.
As we look into the New Year ahead, the small business owner knows that they must keep moving forward no differently than at any other time. Each year brings us new economic and regulatory challenges by different names that affect different areas of our businesses.
The strength of the American small business owner is their ability to adapt and persevere. As the New Year begins, under the shadow of looming tax increases, regulatory changes and congressional gridlock; it can be all too easy to become absorbed and distracted by the details of the uncontrollable. While it is wise and necessary to be informed, aware and prepared, we must not be distracted from the purpose of serving our customers, bringing them value and building an honest business to support out families.
In the process of cleaning out my inbox, I came across an inspiring message from Marc Cenedella, of The Ladders, that had consistently avoided being deleted and remained in my current messages for the last 6 months. The message was from the speech, Citizenship in a Republic given by Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in 1910.
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
As we pour our own blood, sweat and tears into building a better business for those we serve, a better life for our families and a better America for our children I look to the New Year with great enthusiasm and I accept its challenge. Happy New Year!
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