The Poor House

As the economy continues to tank, stories of financial hardship are becoming more commonplace. Businesses are going under and personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures are everyday occurrences in this pre-election, oil-centric environment that we are slowly accepting as normal.

As a small-business owner fending off client budget cuts and soothing potential customers suddenly stricken with T-Rex arms as they reach for their wallets, it is easy to empathize with others who are struggling to make ends meet.

Then I read the story of the Harper family from Lake City, Georgia, near Atlanta. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, their circumstances might. In 2005, they were one of the families on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” As is always the case, this family was living in a decrepit, old house and had it replaced with a mini-mansion – this time built by Atlanta-based Beazer Homes and an army of local volunteers. In addition to the house, Beazer raised $250,000 in contributions that included college funds for the children and a substantial home-maintenance fund to keep things going after the cameras were all gone.

A little more than three years later, the house has been foreclosed on. It seems that the family decided to cash in their newfound equity and take out a loan for $450,000 to pursue a brighter future by investing in a construction business. Needless to say, things did not go as planned, they cannot make their payments and next week their house is scheduled to be auctioned away.

Have a hard time believing anyone could be so stupid? Or so greedy?

Well, as a favorite ESPN football analyst and ex-FSU quarterback likes to say, “Not so fast, my friend.”

As I recently recounted, my laptop computer decided to stop computing while I was on the road, and I had to replace it. Just after I ordered it, I received the pleasant surprise that an insurance policy on the old laptop would pay for the new one. I got the check yesterday.

As I am looking at the check, knowing full well that the charge for the new Dell is weighing on my VISA card balance, I confess that alternative uses for the newfound and unexpected money began to flash before my eyes.

Now, a mid-level notebook computer is certainly no half-million-dollar house, but nobody ever gave me a house. Don’t we all do the same thing from time to time on a much smaller scale?

Haven’t we have paid for a dinner on our card and been reimbursed by a colleague in cash? Do we always set that money aside and use it to pay off the charge? The point is that we need to be disciplined enough to remain fiscally sound – especially in times like this.

When money is flowing, we can make mistakes and make up for them later. If we make a big enough mistake now, there may not be a later. So, I am speaking to myself and all the others tempted to think that reliance on credit is OK and it will be easier to pay off later when things get better.

It is a dangerous game that seems especially tragic when so much money is involved. I wish the Harper family the best and hope that faced with the same decisions on any level, that we would be a bit more prudent.

Rolling with the Punches

Doing work away from the office is easier than ever these days with smart phones, laptops and flash drives at our disposal to make any location with electricity and an Internet connection a virtual office. But what happens when one or all of those devices let you down? I can now say with great certainty, virtually nothing.

Last week I had the pleasure of taking my three oldest daughters (17, 14 and 12), with me to a client conference in Orlando. While I was attending my meetings, they got to swim, explore and appreciate their environment – free of responsibility and full of stuff people of greater means take for granted.

In between meetings and before our weekend excursion to Universal Studios and dinner at the Hard Rock Café, I planned on getting some work done on a couple projects that were behind schedule. Just before we left, I also found out that there were two e-mail newsletters that would need to be sent on Friday from the hotel. No problem, I thought, as the app is online and I will have my laptop ready to go.

On Friday morning, however, it quickly became apparent by the absence of beeps and blinking lights that my laptop was not ready to go. Anywhere. It was dead. Instead of panicking, I tried to borrow one but eventually ended up at the Hyatt Business Center. What a friendly sounding place – a business center. I was pleased that they provided hard-working guests such a helpful amenity, and I was anxious to get started.

The nice, older gentleman behind the counter pointed me to an available computer and gave me a quick overview of how to swipe my credit card to get things going. OK. Swiping is generally not good, but I understand. This won’t take long.

Then I saw the rates. One dollar per minute. Wow. No surfing today – just right to business. I logged in to Web mail, grabbed the info and darted off to my site to create the newsletter – clicking as fast as I could. Not making the experience any more pleasant was the battery-operated wall clock above me with a very loud second hand ticking away as if to mock me.

I thought I was making pretty good time until a message popped on the screen warning that my $50 authorization was getting close. I frantically finished the newsletters, logged out and went back to the room where my sympathetic girls got the good news.

Instead of spending the afternoon writing, I was taking them to Downtown Disney to find souvenirs for the younger siblings -- as long as we were back in time for my last meeting of the day.

We were, and we had a great time (although I certainly was spending money faster than a dollar per minute). The point is that when I knew that my circumstances were set and I would be unable to get any more work done, I was able to let it go and take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy my wonderful daughters. Instead of frustration, my natural response, I had a peace about my inability to do what I thought had to be done.

We are faced with those kinds of circumstances all the time. Meetings get cancelled, computers crash and cell phone batteries die. What we do next is what really matters. How we decide to adapt to the reality that we are not in control of everything goes a long way in determining how we do in business and how much we enjoy it along the way.

Now, while the next few days at the office were even busier than I expected, a part of me was really happy that my laptop decided to die that day. Guilt-free, weekday time with my kids is indeed a rare pleasure – one I did not want to waste.