The Case for Being Proactive

This is not the next Great Depression; it’s the next great opportunity.

There is a lot of concern that the current economic crisis is the next Great Depression. It’s hard to not hear references and people are already running to the banks to pull out all of their money, presumably to put it under the mattress until safer times.

This is a reaction of fear. I’m not saying that there are not tough times ahead. There are. We have no idea if the worst is over or has yet to come. Even with everything that has happened so far, the credit card market is poised to begin collapsing and unemployment is traditionally highest towards the end of a recession, not the beginning.

But now that we’ve got panicking covered, let’s move on to the next thing: rationally turning this into an opportunity to do something amazing.

With banks all over the world collapsing partially because of the foreclosed houses I see in my neighborhood, it’s pretty clear that globalization is here and that America is a powerful influence. President Bush has already called for an economic summit of world leaders on November 15, presumably after the election so that his successor can take part.

It’s a prime opportunity for us to lead the charge out of this mess. Bush has made a smart move by going a step further than just convening the powers-that-be and including the up-and-coming too, India and China in particular. We’ve never had this level of collaboration, this much creativity and determination all focused on the same thing.

Web developers created a set of “web standards” years ago, and now that everyone uses the same building blocks, we’ve seen the amazing innovation of the “Web 2.0” era. We should take this opportunity to establish key accounting standards, checks and balances and an entirely new level of fiscal cooperation at a global level. Everyone will be playing by the same rules. Everyone will have developed the solution, so it will be theirs. They will want to make their solution work.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

– from FDR’s “We have nothing to fear but fear itself speech” inaugural speech during the Great Depression

So what will we see when we look back years from now: that we sank into defeat or that we revamped the old, broken way of doing things for a new, global approach?

The world isn’t ending. The only thing that’s over is the old, bad way of doing things. Now we get to define the new, better way. Let’s end this on our terms and make it work for us.