Downgrade, downsize, down in the dumps?

I just read a good article about Sprint (stock symbol "S"). I have had an order to buy in for about a month at what I thought was a good price. But, the stock has just kept going up recently much to my chagrin as I am a bottom fisher. My thought process was that after purchasing Nextel and trying to expand that and that not working well and loosing customers and market share the stock would go down and it did. But, then they had a resurgence and there was news that the parent of T-Mobile (a German firm) was going to buy them. Then, yesterday the stock was quoted by Nightly Business Report as being "undervalued". I thought, well I guess that one is gone. But today, it was downgraded because the T-Mobile purchase looks grim. That may change tomorrow but for now the stock is declining which I like until I buy it. So there is downgrade.

4 mornings a week, my wife and I ride recumbent bikes at a local church that has a small group of workout equipment which they let the public use for free. We like it and it is helping raise our good Cholesterol. We were talking to a man there who walks and runs their track and does it for 3 miles each day and he said that he had lost 60 pounds. I asked if it was just diet and exercise. He said "just exercise". That was amazing to me. He said that the exercise made him not want to eat as much but that he ate whatever he wanted. So do I and I exercise but not the same result. Yet! I guess you could say he downsized.

Recently I talked with a guy who had built a small empire 3 times. Made a ton of money and lost a ton of money each. Now he was getting ready to loose his latest fortune again. He had done a lot of things right, a lot more things wrong (most of them in his personal life). In talking with him I detected that he was mad at himself, mad at his employees, mad at the government, mad at the economy and mad at his situation which he, of course, created for himself. Everyone was at fault except for guess who? Himself! He was at fault. He was down in the dumps to say the least. Guess what his business is going to die because..............................he has taken his eyes off the target. What is the target? GET MORE BUSINESS EVEN IF HE HAS TO DO IT HIMSELF. Which, at the end of our meeting, he said for himself. He really is a capable and very smart. He must get rid of his sales guy and go selling himself. He is amazingly capable but he thought he had arrived, he had done all the right organizational things, all the right downgrading and downsizing but he got down in the dumps and forgot that nothing matters if you do not have sales.

Many businesses today need to downgrade their opinion of themselves, downsize the business and themselves and realize they are down in the dumps (just like the economy) but what an opportunity. Like the way I buy stock. Unless the company is in Chapter 7 or 11, it will come back. So will your business. Don't Quit yet! Do what you have always done best. Go back to the basics. If you do not trust God, do it now! Some of you may not appreciate this, but the Bible say to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM and He will direct your paths". Do it.

What do you think?