Entrepreneur article about van Schouwen Associates

It hasn't been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon (or at van Schouwen Associates) and so I nearly forgot that our marketing firm was to be featured in an Entrepreneur article discussing how our company (and I) got through some of our darkest days.

Six Tips To Keep Your Business Going After Losing Your Partner takes us back to the days and months in 2006 following the unexpected and heartbreaking cardiac arrest death of my then-husband and business partner Steve van Schouwen. The author, Gwen Moran, told me she focuses on topics relating to business and personal crisis because so many of the business owners to whom Entrepreneur is directed are currently tired, discouraged or feeling beaten down after years of economic instability and business bumps. Her running theme is that entrepreneurs can and do survive more than we expect.

As the "survivor" subject of this latest article, I should know this. However, it never hurts to be reminded that all things change and continue changing. Often, the people who do best in life also cope best with change.

Reading the article, funnily enough, also reminds me of my own strengths, including a propensity to prepare for the unexpected, being more or less willing to "keep on going" and knowing – except when I forget! –  that it's often little things that allow us to exist a state of reasonable stability or contentment. I'll never minimize the sorrow of losing a loved one, nor the long road to feeling good again. I will not minimize the commitment it took, from the staff and me, to assure that van Schouwen Associates continued to provide great value to its clients no matter what.

It certainly makes me appreciate the smallness of everyday travails by comparison.

I hope you enjoy the article. Thanks again, Gwen Moran. I imagine your work helps a lot of readers.

If this works, I am beyond disappointed.

I can't help it, I have to add my voice to the chorus of dismay responding to the NRA's utterly cynical new TV ad condemning President Obama as a hypocrite because his children get Secret Service protection.

As a citizen: While I have my opinions, I understand that the gun control debate has some good arguments on both sides, and I know that as a country we take both the safety of our children (and adults) and our Second Amendment rights seriously. I sincerely believe we can find middle ground that works. One article I thought expressed this well came from a small newspaper in Vermont, where hunting and thus guns are a way of life.

The NRA has a voice in this debate, like 'em or not. Which they have misused and - I hope - squandered.

As a marketing business owner: I want our profession to have some honor. Don't laugh. Many of us bring our ethics to work, and care about the messages we send out into the airwaves, cyberspace and print.

With this ad, the NRA has:

• Broken the unspoken rule that the President's children should be pretty much off-limits for this sort of publicity - and especially for such a smear.

• Feigned ignorance in an ugly way. Anyone with half a brain knows that the President's children are in a much different position than Joey and Janie Average. (Our children, by and large, are not specific targets for terrorists and anti-government activists. Nor are we. Threats are a terrible downside of being president, so it is not elitist to benefit from the Secret Service protection every President and his family get.)

• Made some nasty insinuations that the President is thus misusing his power.

• Exposed the Obama girls to dangers in addition to the ones they already face, by spotlighting them in this way for every deranged person in the country.

I would much rather that the NRA simply make its arguments for Second Amendment rights using the platform on which they stand. I hope that, by and large, Americans are repulsed by this ad. No matter where they stand on gun control.

I fear that I will be disappointed.

Reality 2013: Face up to fast change

This morning I heard a news clip about politicians in Vermont seeking a moratorium on the building of new larger scale wind turbines.

I am still shaking my head. All the talk we hear about renewable energy and... we don't want to look at it? Have it near us? I found that story (from a purportedly environmentally progressive state, no less) disappointing and another example of politicians more concerned about re-election than making positive change.

Later in the morning clients were talking with us about their business prospects for 2013, which we realize are positively influenced by the bad news that severe weather trends and increasingly powerful storms are probably going to continue. The clients were not gloating in the least, just looking at reality and incorporating it into their planning.

My takeaway? This world is changing faster and faster and those who face reality, and then make positive change or provide value, are the people I admire most.

A firm grip on reality is one of the most important tools one can have in dealing effectively with life and work challenges.

You and I certainly may not like some of the changes taking place - or the ones the world needs to make - whether change involves building big wind turbines that we (or our constituents) can see from home or highway, or facing the likelihood that rising temperatures and seas and high-impact storms are becoming more common - but we need to deal with these situations.

There is a lot to think about in 2013. Are American students still the best educated and hardest working in the world? Have we waited too long to effectively stem the climate change that even the conservative World Bank predicts? Will our political leaders have the courage to reduce the U.S. deficit? And/or provide social programs that will help build a stronger country? Can we regulate Wall Street before the next big implosion? Do we know how to cope with the technologies and processes we are developing, from drones to clones, artificial intelligence to factory farms? What should we do about guns and the public?

In 2013, external change comes faster than ever before, and that change is more global.

For businesses, government and non-profit organizations, new problems of course provide ample opportunity to provide better solutions. For businesses, there is opportunity to make money as well. Let's be decent and optimistic and look at ways to have a positive impact. From roofing products that stand up to hurricane winds and water to less violent video games that worried parents can give their children, from technologies to support roads with self-driving cars to flexible careers for seniors who still have energy and need income, and to a myriad of other ideas, our changing world offers ripe opportunity for good, useful and even revolutionary innovation.

A resolution worth making... eyes open, avoidance reflex turned off. Imagination and resolve in gear. Happy new year.