Milestones: The failure of fear

One Hundred Dollar Bill With Medical Face Mask on George Washington.

Can our communities go back to work?

Is it time to open enterprise, take a calculated risk and put our economy into first gear?

There are some strong arguments for doing just that.

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Keeping business closed is a guarantee of a slow death.

Opening the doors of our economy is our only hope for life, liberty and recovery.

Of course, there is risk. Just being in business is a risk. Being alive has its risks.

The virus enemy is among us and will continue to be with us until a vaccine has been created to guarantee a safeguard.

But we have had this experience before. Just think of what we have faced, fought and feared in this generation. Measles, mumps, influenzas, AIDS, polio, diphtheria, typhoid and if you were lucky enough, old age.

The mandate to cease and desist for too long is a guarantee of being crippled; crushing our outlook, our recovery, our optimism and our economic health.

Being cooped up for months has changed your habits. You are keeping your distance, wearing a mask, washing your hands, using disinfectant wipes and bumping elbows.

Do your changes in behavior provide you an adequate margin of safety?

The only guarantee is, we are dying and until that happens, we have to live.

There are about a hundred different dangers that could snuff us out in a micro minute.

Businessmen and women are the catalyst for our recovery. The US Chamber of Commerce reports 99% of America’s business have less than 500 employees. These are classified as small businesses.

Obviously, you cannot have these men and women out of work for months and expect anything good to happen.

They, (we) must go back to work.

Of course, there is risk. And small business owners eat risk for breakfast. They face the fear of failure and adequate funds every day. These folks fail at the rate of 50% in the first five years and that is without a virus.

Failing to open for business, increases those odds right off the chart.

Facing risk, falling, failing and fumbling is wired in their blood. They fall, they get up. They fail, they rebuild. They fumble, they recover.

Making it illegal to go back to work is an absolute guarantee for economic death.

Small business leaders understand risk. They understand the rules for recovery. They cannot be relegated to ruin because of fear.

The excess of political mandates exceeds the abundance of caution required for people to use the God given gift of common sense and return to work.

We need to work. We need to build. We need to grow, and we need to live!

Fear will always be with us. Fear is the failure.

When common sense is injected into the bloodstream of society, it fractures fear, and in turn, allows us to flourish.

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View Comments (3)

    • This article is located within the "Opinion" section, is it not? If not, I'm sorry for the oversight. If so, why do you stress the need for it to be further labeled as such?

  • For those of you who think small local businesses are being taken care of by the trillions in assistance you need to think again. We have a small local business making $0 yet we pay $25k/mo to a huge REIT. So far, no forgiveness and no loans. We risked our savings 5 years ago to start a business. We got our capital back in about 4.5 years. Now we watch as our savings drain away. Bankruptcy is not far behind as it will be for our 30 tenants who cut hair and provide personal services. The irony is that they have had training on how to prevent transmission of disease, what PPE to wear and how to disinfect between clients, yet they are being treated like Typhoid Mary's and not allowed to work. They are rightly nervous about going back to work yet they are barely able to make ends meet. Life is risk. Minimize risk through protective measures. Stay home if you are scared but let us get back to work as safely as possible.