Blue Elevator Blog

Sweet Tea and Economics

This article could have also been titled A False Sense of Security.  But hopefully you’ll understand the title selection in a bit.

Sweet Tea

When I was a kid, I would enjoy an annual pilgrimage to my parent’s home state – Arkansas.  I would enjoy my grandmother’s freshly-boiled sweet corn, french fries, fried okra, and all other types of Southern comfort food.  But what I didn’t enjoy so much were grandpa’s fresh shot, squirrel and dumplings.  I didn’t like it – in general.  I also didn’t like biting into the occasional pieces of shot (e.g., lead) lead from Pawpaw’s shotgun shells.

So, squirrel aside, the former fare was really, really good – including freshly-caught catfish.

Despite whatever was put on your plate, the drink would always be freshly-brewed and iced: Sweet tea! And whereas I now drink iced tea sans the sugar, this wasn’t (and isn’t) the case in the South.  You take freshly-brewed tea and you dump about as much sugar as humanly possible into the glass.

To the delights of my former Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Grosse, I experientially and empirically found that my tea would absorb more sugar if I stirred in the sugar while the tea was hot.  The warm tea and my vigorous stirring would suspend the sugar in the tea.  But when I stopped stirring – and dumped in the ice –  excess sugar would inevitably settle on the bottom (e.g., “precipitate out” – was the scientific term Mrs. Grosse used).  This was intentional on my part.  That is, overloading my tea with sugar.  How do you know if you put enough sugar in your tea unless some fell to the bottom?  The last swig in the glass was a sugary delight.

The lack of stirring – and the cooling tea – would both concomitantly cause the sugar to fall out of suspension and precipitate out.

Economic Suspension

Hence, the title and the main point of this article.  I have been blessed to work in five economic decades.  I have observed some good times.

When things are going great, the market (e.g., tea) is hot.  And there’s a lot of activity (e.g., stirring).  Seemingly any and all businesses enjoy this time of prosperity.  Each business gets caught up and suspended into this mixture.  Each month, sales are seemingly better than the previous.  And profits and cash flow abound.  Every business owner looks like the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, or Barbara Corcoran.

You may have heard another saying: “A rising tide raises all ships.”  Seemingly, every ship (e.g., business) in the harbor enjoys this flood tide.  This tidal surge causes most ships to ride high in the water and impart a false sense of security.

Fallout

In the last five economic decades,  I have also observed some tough times.  There are times when the market (e.g., tea) is cold.  And there’s very little activity (e.g., a lack of stirring).  There are cycles in life and business.  Here is a trustworthy saying:

“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.  Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.” – Ecclesiastes 7:14

It is during these tougher times, that various businesses and organizations fall out (or precipitate out) of the previous economic suspension.

Switching analogies again, this ebb tide is going to strand some dinghies (or large ocean liners) on the rocks.  When it comes to the risk of fallout, organizational size doesn’t matter, in my opinion.

The Take-Home Message (Question)

When the glass of tea is hot, there is plenty of sugar suspended in the tea.  Each drink is sweeter than sweet.  As the leader of your organization, the question is this: What happens when things “cool off?”

At Blue Elevator™, we walk our clients through a continuum of engagement designed for good times and bad.  God willing, there are specific things you can do to make sure your organization stays high and dry during good times and bad.

Contact us!