Momentum

If you spend enough time speaking with any business person, whether from a small or large company, they will tell you they believe in momentum.  Good or bad.  What I mean is when things start going well, in a funny way, your luck starts running along the same line.  Things that could go either way tend to fall your way.  In reverse, it can also happen when things start going badly.

OK, what can we do with that?

It is interesting the way the world works sometimes.  I have a friend who moved back to the state of Iowa in the last few years, and continues to be amazed by the way people treat each other here.  Time and again, I hear positive stories about how they were treated in grocery stores, restaurants, by repairmen and shop owners. I am not surprised as these are the exact type of people I grew up with.  Orrin Black, the grocer, who let me sign for groceries as a college kid and take care of the bill when I could. Rob Marget , who would let me repay a loan at the bank on my terms. Bill Schumaker, the high school principal who allowed me to address the student body when I thought people were acting poorly.  These were the people and stories that I grew up with, so none of this surprised me.

I went home for lunch today and caught the tail end of an episode of “American Pickers.”  In this episode Mike and Frank picked a couple of hand painted tent sides from the old sideshow days.  They paid several hundred dollars for them, and were able to sell them for ten thousand dollars.  It was time for high-fives all around. It was a great story, but then, the better story occurred. They went back to the person who had sold them the pieces and gave him half of their earnings.  Sure, you can be cynical and say this was done for the television audience, but I believe at least part of this story comes from their Iowa background and a desire to do the right thing.

In our family wanderings, we’ve lived in several cities, sometimes in places where each night the news told of the large number of drive-by shootings and other types of violence which had happened throughout the day.  I know this is now part of our culture, but I love the fact that in Iowa, there are more stories about the hit and run driver who felt so badly about it he turned himself in, and oh, by the way, the victim found it in her heart to forgive him; the family whose father is killed in Parkersburg in the worst of situations and spoke first about forgiveness.  Accidental?  I don’t think so.  I think this is Iowa momentum and it is who we are.  Others might say that we are naive, even backwards, but I spent ten years fighting to move back here and much of it was because of things just like this. Iowa has a positive personal momentum, and this is where I want to be.

If this were not a good enough story, momentum happens personally, too. As I begin creating things in my shop, and people see these projects, they ask about them and then want to place an order to buy things.  Sara has begun to get her quilting business up and going and her list of project request is already enough to carry her through the first six months of 2013. 

Momentum is what it is all about.  You can survive with no momentum, or negative momentum, or you can go out and create positive momentum.  I will tell you which I suggest. Now, you should probably know that I grew up in a community whose slogan was, “Just Naturally Friendlier.” Get out there and be the beginning of positive momentum.