The economic news these days is, uh… bad. It turns out that the productivity increase in the 2nd quarter was due to companies letting more people go and freezing the salaries of those who remain. And then there’s unemployment. And retail sales. And GM. And the banks. And the entire state of California.
Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat.
So I was somehow heartened by an issue of the Wall Street Journal this week that just happened to include stories about a lot of companies trying to grow and people looking to better times. Here are just some of the stories I noticed in the WSJ on just one day:
– Disney buys Marvel
– Baker Hughes agreed to pay $5.5 bil to purchase BJ Services
– Walmart is creating an online mall and will sell merchandise from other retailers
– Restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory are testing healthier menu selections and kids-eat-free nights to try to get families to eat out again
– Payless Shoes is expanding into Russia
– Companies are doing more pro bono work – and finding that it’s earning them paying gigs
– Dell is going to sell Brocade networking gear under its own name
– Samsung is launching an apps service for cell customers in Europe
– Blue Nile is undergoing a major overhaul in an effort to attract women (most of its customers are men)
– Some people are making fools of themselves with wacky job-hunting tactics that may not close the deal today, but have helped garner them some positive media coverage and made them stronger for it
Anyone who knows me knows I’m not exactly a blind optimist, and it’s not the first time I’ve noticed that newspapers are full of stories every day (wow!). But there was something about that particular issue that just seemed bursting with hope and – on that singular Tuesday – I appreciated and was grateful for it.
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Here is a post I received on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, and it is so smart. I learn something the first time I read your work and then spend days afterword thinking about ever link. As a blind optimist, I have learned that perhaps with Twitter all of us human beings are learning to speak to one another (not sell, speak). And here, as someone I trust not to be blindly optimistic, I know that what I saw as opportunity may have not been the foolish mistake of the eternal optimist. I am going to keep going. I thank you. Sincerely, John Evan Frook
Comment by John Frook 09.05.09 @ 10:59 pmLeave a comment
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