pinch me baby

I just keep thinking that the economy is going to turn around and then another friend calls to tell me their house in is foreclosure.

It's down right depressing.  It's like before you learn to swim as a kid and you tip toe along the bottom of the pool with your head cocked back keeping your chin above water. When will America swim again?

But I have found a silver lining in all this.

I have these friends. Two great guys that I know through.... oh okay, it's the Brothers Record.  Every time my phone rings and I see on the caller ID that it is one of them I know exactly how the conversation will begin.

Me: Well hello, hello!

Adam/Shawn: Hi!

Me: So how gos it?

Adam/Shawn: Great. I'm great. How are you?

Me: You know. Crazy.

Adam/Shawn: Yeahhhh (awkward pause).  So I have something to run past you.

Me: Hit me with it.

Adam/Shawn: Well I have this idea...

Eighty-nine percent of the time they call this is how it goes.  Because, quite frankly, they always have an idea.  They are idea guys.  They have amazing, terrific ideas. They have more ideas for new ventures than they will ever have time to execute.  But, they dream a lot and talk more.

And I love them for this.

I love that during this time that I've deemed "The Big Pinch",  people are becoming more innovative.  I am surrounded by friends starting up new companies.  Etsy is what it is today because people are being forced to put their talent and hands to good use.

I love it. I love the creativity that is in the air. I love the ingenuity. I love that people are reaching out to others for help.  Ideas are being bounced around like hot potatoes.  It feels a little magical to me.

"The Big Pinch" has sucked big time, this is true, but what an amazing thing to live through! Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the projects I am working on but, by damn, I refuse to miss the chance to jump on this wild ride and see where it takes me.  I've got big dreams. Do you?

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose the ventures before us

 - William Shakespeare