Economic concerns.

Poor business.

Unemployment.

It sure looks bad, doesn't it?

But I also want to remind you that we have lived, survived and prospered though far worse times.

For example:

In 1780 George Washington said, "We are without money; and have been so for a great length of time..."

He went on to create an estate worth three-quarters of a million dollars when he died.

In 1840 a traveler wrote, "So great is panic, and so dreadful distress, that there are a great many farms prepared to receive crops, and some of them actually planted, and yet deserted, not a human being to be found upon them."

But we got over that problem, too.

In 1857 an editorial stated, "It is a gloomy moment in history. Not for many years---not in lifetime of most men who read this newspaper---has there been so much grave and deep apprehension."

That passed, as well.

In 1873 this country had a panic that shook nation. A newspaper wrote:

"All over country manufacturers are closing their works and discharging their operatives, simply because they can neither sell goods they make nor borrow money to carry them until demand for them revives."

Yet we survived that panic, too.

In 1893 one man wrote of troubling times he saw:

"I have been through all panics of last thirty years, but I have never seen one in which distress was so widespread and reached so many people who had previously not been affected as this panic of 1893."

And we got through that one, too.

We also got through Great Depression of 1929, two World Wars, and even Y2K panic.

What appears to be gloom and doom is often just focus of media. Consider what Gandhi once said:

The day his article appeared, she received calls from Time and Newsweek as well as from several executives who turned into clients. Time ran its own story on her, which led to writeups in Barron's, Financial Weekly, The New York Times, "CBS This Morning" and "Good Morning America." Much of her business -- and her ability to charge thousands of dollars a day for her services -- indirectly stems from that phone call to that columnist.

What can you learn from this?

First, she used a concise, intriguing characterization of herself. This takes most people much more than one minute to formulate. Unless you have an unusual job title, such as Florida State Official Handwriting Analyst, your job title won't perform this function. Instead you need to delve below "stockbroker," "specialty shoe wholesaler" or "sports trainer" to put into words results that you produce for some group of people. The shoe wholesaler might say, "I help men spend a whole day on their feet in comfort."

You'll know you've done it right when people lean forward after you reel off your sentence and ask you, "How do you do that?"