Consequences are the kinds of things that either haunt us or applaud us. It would appear that, at some level, we live in a cause-and-effect world. The problem is that it’s not always easy to see what caused what, or to predict the effects. And we’re living in it right now.
A multitude of decisions have led the world to the moment it’s in right now, have led to the moment you and your family is in right now. Some of them were excellent decisions, most of them weren’t made by you, and some of the decisions were really poorly made. But decisions were made, and here we are – living in our collective consequences.
Now, on the surface, this sounds a bit “doom and gloom,” but there are two sides to this coin.
The real message that consequences bring us is that our actions have an impact, and it’s typically bigger than we thought. There are ripples to our decisions and they seem to amplify. One piece of bad news in the market can cause unprecedented sell-offs; often an emotional over-reaction by investors.
We’re seeing something similar with unemployment right now. JP Morgan just reported that we have the highest unemployment dating back to January 1948, but that more importantly, that unemployment is affecting other sectors and is creating a bit of a cascade that will probably be worse. That’s bad news. That’s a ripple effect that’s growing.
Here’s what’s important: that ripple effect works the same way on the positive side of the equation, and it points to where we need to put our attention today.
Each of us have the ability to do something to make things better. We can do that personally, in our families, in our business and in our community. And those positive moves will have a bigger impact than we think. Sometimes the direct result is what’s needed, but other times the example you set by trying to keep improving things, or change things, is exactly what someone else needed to see. Perhaps it inspires someone else. Maybe it reminds them of what’s possible.
We’ve been trying to live this thinking at MKD, and it hasn’t been easy, but we’ve been working at it. Over the last few weeks, we’ve increased our support resources so we can do a better job of staying connected and in sync with you. We’ve learned that we can connect faster, and arguably better than we thought with technology. We’ve learned to work better with our team as they’ve been working from home and we’ve had to get smarter and more deliberate about how we collaborate. And we’ve even just hired someone new.
We don’t say any of this with bravado or pride, but with the determination that we’re going to do what we can to create positive ripples in the best way we can. Doing things that help improve our business helps create better experiences for each of our clients and their families – ripples. Connecting faster and better lets us stay in tune and stay relevant – ripples. Working better with our team makes our lives better, their lives better, and hopefully your life better – ripples. Hiring someone new to the team is one, miniscule step toward national economic recovery, and lets one more family feel more stable – ripples.
When you toss a pebble into a still pond, the ripples are always bigger than the pebble. Go make a splash, even a small one.