Marion's Blog

Obama could not have been clearer in his presentations these past months – we all need Hope. And by saying this – he actually manages to give precisely that to people not just in the US but all round the world. Hope for a better economy, hope for peace, hope for a steady presidency where things are achieved and stability is returned to the country, hope for a better life.

Business owners the world over struggle today in the economic environment. They are suffering because credit lines are withdrawn, or financing is not extended. Because their suppliers may go out of business through lack of funds, or because their customers are holding off placing any orders. Here it is where Hope is most needed. We need to get to a place of stability and a return to normalcy regarding financing our day-to-day operations.

Hope is one of many emotions that we humans experience. I was watching an interview with Paulo Coelho just the other night – and he spoke of emotions and how our whole society has become so geared to this phenomenon of being “Happy”. His philosophy is that “happiness” is an invention of our superiors, many years ago – when they wanted to make us work harder, be more productive and in return we would get some free time... and that combination – satisfaction through hard work, followed by something called leisure time – would make us very happy. This of course has never been the balance of time an entrepreneur strives for. I have a hard time explaining to my parents – the older generation if you will – that I find joy in all that I do and that that “all” contains what I do for a living. It is not something I segregate in blocks of time – one block for work, one block for “living” – all of it is my LIFE and I love all of it. Sometimes I spend a little more time working (well, a lot actually) and sometimes I just drop everything in the middle of the day to go out on a gorgeous afternoon and enjoy the fresh outside air and a run through the woods. That is my life, and it brings me joy. This is Paulo’s sentiment exactly – strive for having fun, enjoying what you do, rather then this elusive "happiness" that we all feel we must find.

So going back to Hope – this is similar to the happiness I describe above. You don’t find Hope by looking for it, or by waiting for someone else to give it to you. You find hope by always being convinced that something good will turn up, that times will change again and that it is OK if things are not so great for a while. Life is not all “up” – it must contain the reverse side also to make us all realize how good it can be.

I strongly believe that this crisis as all the others before it, will fade because people like you and me eventually kind of get tired of all the doomtalk and decide that we will take a chance, we will do something new, and we will make it work one way or the other. With spring, people will become more optimistic and having shed off their heavy winter-frowns and worries with their wintercoats– they will start buying houses again, they will start investing again and shrug when someone talks about the crisis. It is these very small gestures, the things that ordinary people do that will kick off a reversal of the current down economy. And this knowledge and expectation makes me nod and smile when I listen to Obama.
Yes, I am full of Hope – and I know it won’t be long before the world turns yet again.