Meaningful Trends for 2009

It's a fascinating time to do business and other projects. Entrepreneurs and other smart people are making predictions about what's sort-a going to happen this year. Here are some that make a lot of sense:

- Upscale or downscale. It's a paradox, but people are either going for the cheapest of the cheap, or the best of the best. Low-end or high-end, but not in-between. This reminds me of advice from my mother about furnishing a house. She said either to get the cheapest piece you can stand (thinking it's temporary), or the best you can possibly afford (thinking long term.)

I think the real growth is providing an opportunity to experience high-end, but for a low overall price. This would include facials, manicures, specialty coffees and chocolates.

Business coach John Assaraf is specifically predicting, among other things, growth in the nail care/day spa industry.

- Buying on the Internet, rather in the store. Ho hum. Didn't we already know that? High prices of gasoline induced more people to shop online, and even though the price of gasoline dropped, the online habit remains.

- Higher unemployment means more entrepreneurship.

- Higher unemployment means more investment in adult education.

- Everyone is expecting the stock market to improve. There's no reason why it shouldn't.

- Products involving recycling and using less water are on the upswing. Again, no surprise here.

- The health care industry continues to grow. Our aging population needs more health care services and products.

There are opportunities all around. Make room for them by clearing out tired and unnecessarily complicated things in your life.

Finding the Right Opportunities in 2009

Do you see the forest or the trees?

When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different direction than Barnes had expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity.

This excerpt is revised and updated version of Napoleon Hill's classic book, Think and Grow Rich. He tells the story about a man, Mr. Barnes, who wanted very much to work with Thomas Edison, and the process through which that desire manifest itself. Barnes had to start with a menial job in Edison's company. It was much later that his opportunity showed up in the form of a business development that everyone else in the office pooh-poohed. The "doomed-for-failure" innovation was the first dictating machine that ending up making a pot of money for both Edison and Barnes.

So, the question revolves around how exactly to recognize an opportunity that is coming in a different form, and from a different direction that what one is expecting. And if it's something unexpected, how can it be recognized?

The reality is, you don't always know exactly which of the multiple options vying for your attention, energy, and other resources is the right one to take to achieve your goal.

What is certain, however, is that inaction and lack of follow-through takes you nowhere.

If you realize that what we often call failure, is simply part of the achievement process, then you understand the importance of moving in the direction that seems to be the right one. Take action now, and the further along you go, the more clarity you gain about what works and what doesn't.