Smart Business Magazine, November 2020

6 Smart Business November 2020 Why be thankful Appreciate the chance to be better tomorrow For many it probably doesnt feel like a time to be thankful There have been tremendous losses this year in the community in business and personal losses making it understandably easy to focus on the negative Consider however that the worst has likely already happened A massive disruption has completely reshaped the market Your business might have faced setbacks unlike it has ever seen before but its still here And even those who have lost their businesses youre still here However much of a setback were facing we still have the opportunity to persevere to learn and importantly to try again Everyone knows the name Walt Disney but not everyone knows of his years of failure His first studio went bankrupt he didnt secure the rights to his first successful character and it was taken out from under him and his funding requests for the first Mickey Mouse film were rejected hundreds of times before he got a yes He spent his early professional years broke and the stresses eventually led to a nervous breakdown But he persevered innovated and found rarefied success We become prisoners of our fears worried so much about them that they shape who we are They make us afraid to take risks or try something new because doing so could mean losing everything we have But having that fear realized and recognizing that we can overcome it can set us free to reimagine ourselves reimagine our businesses in ways that we couldnt before Now may be a good time to do a self assessment Take inventory of your priorities and identify whats really important to you Refocus on who you are and the abilities and traits that set you apart make you great and Fred Koury President and CEO Smart Business Network Inc fkoury@ sbnonline com FROM THE CEOmake your organization great Its possible that caught up in the day to day grind you lost who you are that you got locked into one idea or one version of yourself Now could be a time to refocus on your strengths and attack the market from a new angle refreshed and reinvigorated When you see that the worst has happened you realize that you can survive more than you believed you could Youre stronger than you believed and you can do much more than you gave yourself credit for Too often we measure ourselves against who we were in the past But we should be thankful for where we are today for whatever we have now and know that we have a chance to be even better tomorrow SMART BUSINESS 835 Sharon Drive Suite 200 Cleveland OH 44145 P 8009884726 F 4402507001 SMART BUSINESS MAGAZINE EVENTS PUBLISHER CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Dustin S Klein VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES Katie Janoch Janet K Valore CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jim Mericsko SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Wendy Armon CONTENT DIRECTOR Sue Ostrowski SENIOR EDITOR Adam Burroughs DIGITAL MANAGER Kate Stucky VICE PRESIDENT EVENT MANAGEMENT John Lotenero DIRECTOR OF EVENTS Danielle Catteau BRAND MANAGER EVENTS Meredith Rankin Lisa Dore Smart Business Magazine Events are a division of SMART BUSINESS NETWORK INC PRESIDENT CEO Fred Koury MANAGING PARTNER Lee Koury MANAGING PARTNER Michael Marzec CONTROLLER Kathy Deutsch EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Jill Brown SMART BUSINESS MAGAZINES CINCINNATI COLUMBUS NORTHEAST OHIO PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURGH