Fundamentals

How are you responding to extraordinary turbulence in current financial markets?

Painful as it is, this once in a generation correction has challenged us to evaluate and prioritize what truly matters most.

Here are some observations and suggestions for assessing and adjusting your personal and professional game plan for continuing health, wealth and success in a difficult economy.

The marketplace that not long ago valued heavily-leveraged global transactions is now rewarding closer personal relationships and strategic collaboration among trusted vendors, suppliers, investors and key clients.

Be sure to talk often or better yet meet with the people who matter most to you.

Customers and investors are migrating toward lean businesses with a quality mindset that know what customers truly value and consistently meet or exceed their most important requirements.

Be sure to refocus you business relentlessly on the fundamentals.

Employees with a positive outlook, a passion for solving problems and zeal for improvement and innovation are more valuable than ever.

Be sure your own work consistently ranks among the best. This is not a time to settle for less.

As credit has tightened, cash is now king.

Be sure to prioritize and rationalize your larger investments, continue to manage your inventory and accounts receivable aggressively, and delay or defer non-essential spending.

Finally, be smart managing your current assets but continue strategic periodic investment in businesses that excel at the fundamentals.

This is an excellent time to invest for the longer term in high-quality businesses that have been greatly oversold.

Create your future, today. The best is yet ahead.

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Endurance

As the world awaits timely resolution of current instability in financial markets I sense the quotes I have selected below may be more valuable than my usual monthly message.

Good thoughts for you all and special wishes for those who are experiencing great anxiety or unusual hardship today.

As always, I am confident the best is yet ahead.

Create your future, today.

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"It is not the rich man you should properly call happy but him who knows how to use the blessings of the gods." - Horace

"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character. And we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us move forward." - Henry Ford

"It's only when the tide goes out that you discover who's been swimming naked." - Warren Buffett

"He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good." - Jewish Proverb

"The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur." - Vince Lombardi

"I will love the light for it shows me the way yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars." - Og Mandino

"It's better to be roughly right than precisely wrong." - John Maynard Keynes

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