Staying Optimistic in Uncertain Times

When uncertainty rises, staying informed, prepared, and focused on what you can control can keep pessimism from becoming a business strategy.

I keep coming back to this topic. There’s no shortage of things to worry about these days. Read the news, turn on the TV, or spend five minutes scrolling through social media, and you’ll find plenty of reasons to feel lousy about the future. Political turmoil, wars, inflation, rising interest rates, economic uncertainty, government debt, trade disputes, and a seemingly endless list of things that are going wrong are enough to make even the most optimistic person question where things are headed.

If you own or manage an AEC business, it’s even worse. You can worry about whether or not your clients will keep spending money on your services, pay their bills, and if and when the next big economic shoe is about to drop. And the truth is, even if you do everything right, you can still get blindsided by something happening halfway around the world or by some decision made in Washington, D.C. I’ve had my periods of pessimism, but always come out of them. I’m not some permanently cheerful, glass-half-full guy who wakes up every morning and puts on rose-colored glasses. Things go wrong, and sometimes they go really wrong. And pretending otherwise doesn’t make you optimistic. It makes you delusional.

But here’s what I’ve learned: You can’t afford to let the bad things happening around you determine how you approach the things you can actually control. It’s essential. So what can you do to stay positive without ignoring reality or pretending the problems aren’t there? A few things have helped me:

1. Limit your bad news intake. I’m not suggesting you bury your head in the sand – you’ve got to understand what’s happening in the economy, our industry, your clients’ industries, and the world. But there’s a difference between being informed and repeatedly exposing yourself to things that make you feel like crap. At some point, watching another talking head explain why everything’s terrible just makes you feel worse. Turn it off and do something productive.
2. Focus on your own business. Are you looking ahead at predictive data? Are you talking to your clients? Are you taking care of your best employees? Are you improving the quality of your services? Are you collecting your AR? Are you looking for new markets and new opportunities? Are you making the necessary changes before circumstances force you to make them? These things matter a lot more to your eventual success than spending another afternoon arguing about the economy with somebody on the internet.
3. Remember that uncertainty can also create opportunities. When other people get scared, they stop making decisions. They postpone investments, quit pursuing new business, freeze hiring, and abandon plans. Sometimes those are sensible responses. Other times, it’s just fear masquerading as good management. This could be your time to charge ahead.
4. Don’t confuse optimism with recklessness. Being positive doesn’t mean ignoring your cash position, taking on debt you shouldn’t, or assuming every problem will disappear by next quarter. It means acknowledging reality and believing you can do something about it. Build cash reserves. Understand your risks. Make contingency plans. Then get on with it. Prepared people have more reason to be optimistic because they’ve done something to improve their chances for success.
5. Spend time with people who make you better. Every business owner knows people who can tell you something won’t work before you’ve even finished explaining the idea. Some of them are useful because they see risks you missed. Others are simply naysayers. You need to be around people who’ll challenge your thinking without crushing your enthusiasm.
6. Remember that your attitude affects other people. If you’re a principal or leader, your people are watching you. They don’t expect you to have every answer, and they certainly don’t expect you to pretend that everything’s fine when it isn’t. But they need to see that you’re engaged, thinking clearly, making decisions, and looking ahead. Your anxiety can become their anxiety. Your determination can also become their determination.

None of this guarantees you won’t have down periods. When things are easy, almost anybody can feel good about the future. The real test comes when the outlook is cloudy, the news is bad, and you have no idea what next month will bring. Lord knows, I’ve had my ups and downs, and I expect to have more. I don’t always get it right. I get discouraged, question things, and occasionally let the negativity get the better of me. But it never takes long for me to remind myself that feeling bad about the situation doesn’t make anything better. Only doing something might.

There’s probably more opportunity right now than during any other period of human history, if you can keep your head clear enough to see it!

Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com. This article originally appeared in The Zweig Letter. Reprinted with permission.