Martin Luther King's Birthday Sales

Martin Luther King’s Birthday Day 2009.  I remember when we celebrated the first Martin Luther King’s day, it took three years to really catch on, the first year the federal offices and some states’ offices closed, the next year the banks closed and the brokerages stayed open, the year after that the banks and brokerages closed and now we’ve finally reached the holiday epiphany, Martin Luther King’s Birthday Sales in all the stores.  

When thinking about equality and achievement, I think that we’ve come a long way in my lifetime, but we have not come to where we need to be yet, not even close.  I’ll try to explain how we will know when we’ve reached the place where we need to be and all race, creed, color, sexual orientation, national origin, religious orientation, (I know I’ve missed some but you get the idea) etc. etc. is no longer and issue.  The only thing we should care about is can the person do the job, period, hard stop. 

Do this experiment with me, there is a section in most business papers that announces who has moved to high level jobs in corporations, look at the announcements, when John Smith III is appointed to a high level spot, it never announces “John Smith III, the 56^th protestant white male in a row has been appointed president of firm ABC ” it just says “John Smith III has been appointed”.  Imagine if it was a black Muslim woman who was appointed, boy you would see all the dirty details as if it’s a self congratulatory note, HEY look at us we’ve done this.  

THERE SHOULD BE NO DIFFERENCE; there is none if the person is competent, so until I see the same level of description without the self-congratulatory additions we haven’t succeeded yet.  Think about it…………

Whew-2008 is over- What Now?

Whew, 2008 is over, what happens now?   Welcome to my blog, I am sitting and thinking how we can make sure that 2009 is not like 2008. 

 Let’s not write off 2008 just yet, we accomplished a lot.  As a nation we rallied under that banner of change to create a better world.  It’s the first time in recent history that I remember being elated at the election of a president.  I wish Barack Obama and his team the strength to focus on the important things, and the ability to ignore the trivialities that I’m sure will pursue them.   

We also survived, we woke up this morning and we are alive, that’s a big deal.  

From an economic perspective we are all in a bit of a funk, we’ve lost money, jobs, savings, but most importantly we’ve lost the guarantee that everything was always going to go up.  We’ve lost the trust in the regulatory agencies (the ones that actually existed), we no longer believe in the American dream….whoa stop right there, this is the American dream the America dream says that we have the strength to go through the bad times, that we can come back after anything.  

2009 is going to be a great year I decided that.  I don’t know how it’s going to be great, I don’t know why it’s going to be great, but it will be great, I decided that.  Do you want to come along for the ride? 

Here’s my biggest goal for 2009, wake up in the morning of January 1, 2010 and be alive. After that I’ll ride the roller coaster and let you know how it came out.  

I’m working on a growing a new business during the most difficult economic period in the last 70 or so years; I must be crazy, yes crazy like a fox.  This is the time to try something new, the world will be different and we want to be part of the new world, let’s take charge of making the differences, and be proactive instead of reactive. 

In this blog I'll  talk about my business and how I’m building it, and other random ramblings.....come along for the ride. 

Claudine Halpern