Stationed in Germany with the Army over 12 years ago, I remember eagerly placing “x’s” on my short timer’s calendar.  Each day spent was one day closer to “freedom” and, ultimately, home.  While living in Europe was the opportunity of a lifetime that I will forever cherish, I could not wait for the day when the road that got me to the barracks in Schweinfurt converged with the road that was headed back to my home in Michigan so that I could cash in my “mulligan” from round one of my life after high school.

I worked in the construction industry during summers of my high school years and thoroughly enjoyed it, but my big dream was always to become an airline pilot.  I packed away my tool belt after high school graduation and headed for flight school in northwestern Michigan armed with big goals and big ideas, but a very humble pocket book – and a looming recession in the early 1990′s.  After a year and half or so and a private pilot license later, that humble pocket book ultimately became the demise of my professional flying career and the incubator of my immediate future as soldier Mike.  Needless to say, I was devastated at not fulfilling my goal.  I even caught myself languishing in self doubt and doubting the premise of success by working hard and playing by the rules.  I had failed at the first big thing I set out to do as an adult, not for lack of effort, but by circumstances that I felt were beyond my control.  The wisdom that comes with age would ultimately allow me to learn that few situations are beyond one’s control but those that are still must be dealt with - but at the time I hadn’t been acquainted with that concept.  I raised my right hand and signed up for the college fund with Uncle Sam.

That choice, made by a 20 year old during a tough time in my life, in hindsight was one of the best decisions I ever made – and helped to clearly shape not only my future but those of my future wife and children.  I was forced to take an ample dose of humility and become nothing more than a recruit.  I got into great shape, was forced to re-analyze my life goals and get focused on the task at hand.  The goal of basic training is to tear the pseudo confidence down and rebuild it with an iron will.  Life experiences do that to each of us over time, basic training attempts to do it in two months.  The parable to life in general is quite obvious.

Where am I going with all of this?  Many, if not most of us are going through some of the most difficult times in our careers right now.  We doubt the decisions that led us to manage or own a construction business.  We see only the forecast of bad news with very little sunshine on the horizon.  We will make decisions now, under duress that will affect us for the rest of our lives.  Those businesses with systems in place that operate with proper business fundamentals are able to read the tea leaves much better than those that fly by the seat of their pants.  Those that practice forecasting, job costing, keep a work in progress schedule and bill accordingly (not too much ahead or too much behind) manage their precious cash flow and have an edge on the rest of us to capitalize on the next upturn or stabilization in the market.

The key point I want to offer is that now, during a time of stress, take the time to develop your plan of action, your next steps and avoid knee jerk reactions.  Perhaps some benchmarks or milestones could be useful.  Make these decisions with every available resource and planning tool available.  During that year and a half of flight school, the term “Trust your instruments” was pounded into me over and over.  These instruments, with backups, cross references and redundant mechanisms, won’t fail and must be your guide.  Now is not the time to count on false confidence or to close our eyes and hope for the best, but to count on our training and our systems. Sometimes the choice we make might take us down a completely different road than we initially imagined.  Hard times such as now are often credited with building character.  Even more importantly, I believe they reveal it.

I wish those that may read this a pleasant and blessed Thanksgiving holiday. I am thankful for the opportunity to communicate via this blog and welcome any comments or suggestions.  Unfortunately, we are not currently equipped to accept tomato throwing or spitballs.