The U.S. economy languishes in a quagmire of uncertainty and fear. We all need a jolt from Napoleon Hill’s, Think and Grow Rich. We’ve lost our imagination. We depend on government. We think if we just hang on, things will get better; when they won’t, unless we collectively take action.

Actions begin with thoughts, with imagination, with dreams.   Ideas get buried in political gambit. Dreams get squashed by disconsolate pessimism. “I can’t do it” echoes along Main Street more often than, “Let’s just get it done!”

Americans have been here at other times. The Great Depression was the time for despair, and many Americans were desperate.

How much of this information sounds familiar?`
• October “ is the cruellest month . . .” for the stock market.  Time’s cruelty is  T.S. Eliot’s theme in The Waste Land. Time, greed, and fear coalesced on “Black Tuesday” (October 29, 1929).  Stocks lost 38 points as 16 million shares changed owners (the Dow Jones did not trade as many shares until 1968). The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 89% from its peak and found a bottom at 41.32.
• In the 1920’s, industry and business announced exceptional profits.
• Wages were low and credit purchases were high.
• Real estate prices peaked in 1935 and lost value prior to and after the 1939 collapse.
• 40% of US banks failed.
• Unemployment climbed to 25% in 1933
• During his first year as President, Roosevelt charged the “unscrupulous money lenders” and ” self-seekers” for the economic collapse.
• The American family saw a drop in income from $2,300 to $1,500 annually; that is a 40% decline. A 2009 survey by FinaMetrica indicates that 64% of respondents expect a drop in life style.
• Government initiatives created road and building projects.
• The Dust Bowl of 1935-1938 forced 800,000 out of their homes and off the farm. Did Al Gore catch a cyclical event or an inexorable global catastrophe that might be mitigated?
• The Home Owners Refinancing Act passed through Congress in 1933 helping about one million families get mortgages.

Sounds familiar and worse.

Maybe imagination, hope, belief, expectation, and ideas helped Americans get through the effects of avarice.  Maybe changes are just simple economic cycles. Maybe,  World War II gave Americans focus, hope, and incidentally, economic growth.  Who knows for certain? I think energy and necessity (“the mother of invention) exceeds the impact of circumstance.  What we are matters more than where we are.

Napoleon Hill writes, “Never in the history of America has there been so great an opportunity,  for practical dreamers as now exists….The rules of the race have changed, because we now live in a changed world that definitely favors the masses, those who had little or no opportunity to win under the conditions existing during the depression, when fear paralyzed fear and development. ”

“We who are in this new race for riches, should be encouraged to know that this changed world in which we lives is demanding new ideas, new ways of doing things, new leaders, new inventions, new methods of teaching, new methods of marketing, new books, new literature, new features for the radio, new ideas for moving pictures.”

“Back of all this demand for new and better things, there is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”

Where are the inventors and innovators? They are doing what inventors and innovators do. They change our world; they lead us because they dream, they innovate, they invent, and they have ”burning desire”.

You may think that America has lost its “burning desire” for invention and innovation;  not so. The Kauffmann Foundation tracks the creative and inventive spirit of America.

Here are recent news stories from the Kauffman Foundatin newsletter:

 
• World Turns On Its Entrepreneurial Axis: During Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 16-22, millions of young people around the world joined a growing movement of entrepreneurial people to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Eighty-eight countries across six continents came together during the second annual global celebration of entrepreneurship to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination, and creativity.
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• Company Founders Credit Experience, Management, and Luck for Entrepreneurial Success: While fostering new business creation could again help the United States move more swiftly toward ending the current recession, little has been known about the factors that cultivate and support entrepreneurialism. However, a new study from the Kauffman Foundation, “Making of a Successful Entrepreneur,” provides insight into company owners’ views about what influences the success or failure of a startup business.
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• Canadian Student Takes 2009 Global Student Entrepreneur Award: Simon Fraser University student Milun Tesovic, founder of MetroLyrics.com, has been named champion of the 2009 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) and the recipient of $150,000 in cash and donated services that will help support his company and development as an entrepreneur. The GSEA Global Finals, featuring students from eighteen countries, were held at the Kauffman Foundation during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
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• OECD Report on Entrepreneurship Reveals Economic Impact on Firm Formation: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has unveiled the first indications of how the economic slump has affected entrepreneurship in the United States and eleven other countries in 2008 and most of 2009. The report, Timely Entrepreneurship Indicators, shows that firm formation declined and exits increased, which economists say could have significant implications for job creation.
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• College Freshman Show Increasing Interest in Entrepreneurship: The most ubiquitous survey of college freshmen in the United States reveals that interest in entrepreneurship among first-year college students has risen over time. Trends in Business Interest Among U.S. College Students bases its findings on data available through the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which for forty years has conducted the CIRP Freshman Survey. Find out more arrow
• Partnership to Launch Book Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The Kauffman Foundation, Princeton University Press, and the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at New York University have announced a publishing partnership to launch the Kauffman Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
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Do you believe history is repetitious?

Do you believe that what happened then can happen anytime?

Are you dreaming…inventing…innovating?

This morning a friend and I talked by telephone.

The Bible says, “Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family,” and he is family.

My friend works for a major insurance company overseeing new product development management from the technology side: databases, daily valuation updates, client statement. He’s not a geek, but he understands geekdom.

Today, we talked about the power and impact of personality during good times and bad times.  No one found a pink slip on their desk, but company bonuses and matching pension contributions got axed.

Most employees groused. He understands, accepts, and does his job effectively.

His tone is even, but never bores. As his wife says, “He can walk in a room without sensing any emotion. I walk in a room and absorb every one’s feelings.” He does sense feelings, but never messes with them.

My friend’s temperament and commitment merits a promotion, and he got one.

Temperament and tone matter. Personality is the message. Impeccable expression changes lives.

Paul Hawken’s commencement address, “Healing or Stealing?” expresses his passion, intelligence, and vision. His words: energetic; his challenge: relevant.

Loving the word, ideas, concepts, and having a vision matter. Too often, we overlook the power of ideas because we exert too much attention getting people to buy a product or service. The power of language, the impact of passion that words convey, and the power of redemptive change elevates above the base and mundane.

Mark Twain wrote, “The difference between a word and the right word is the difference between the lighting bug and lightning.”

Paul Hawken’s University of Oregon 2009 graduation commencement address affirms and encourages. When bleak news fatigues and arouses fear, Hawken’s says, “You are brilliant and the earth is hiring.” Economic policy, human toys, and avarice must give way to the enduring necessity of life on earth.

Every day we commence activities, and every day our economic obligations and initiatives must conform to what works best for the earth and all her inhabitants. Investing is not just for you, or me; investing demands moral temperament and sensitive tones. Investing ourselves for the highest purpose creates a portfolio legacy that Wall Street cannot take nor diminish.

To read Hawken’s message, look at the toolbar at the bottom for the word “full” (screen). Hit escape when you’re done.