Remember the old carnival game – Whack-a-Mole. You would hold a mallet of some kind in your hand and when the little mole popped up, you’d whack him on the head. However, as soon as you whacked one, another one would pop up someplace else.
This week Joanne and I want to the annual Lawn and Garden Show here in Nashville. We always love getting new ideas for our yard. This year we talked to several companies about building a water feature right in front of our house. The entire show was bursting with activity. It appears that while people are traveling less they are now more interested in improving their homes as the place for physical and spiritual restoration.
And so it goes. I see the same phenomenon in business that we see in Whack-a-Mole. When one business lags, another explodes. If your business is suffering, what is the counterpart that is thriving? Can you benefit from that? If appliances aren’t selling, then you can be sure appliance repair is up. If new car sales are in the tank, used cars are thriving.
In Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill said, “Every adversity, every failure, and every heartache carries with it the Seed of an equivalent or a greater Benefit.”
Have you found the greater benefit flip side of your current adversity?
Incidentally, I won 7 Teddy Bears one time in a 30-minute stand at the Whack-a-Mole booth at Opryland years ago. My eye-hand coordination served me well. And I believe that moles do pop up like that – but so do great opportunities for all of us in business.
Tags: carnival, mole, nashville, opportunity, whack
Dan Miller's Blog 
March 22, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Good insite, Dan…………..I remember how you used to LOVE to play Whack-a-mole and were very good at it…….perhaps it was a precurser to what you are doing today…………anticipating the next thing that pops up in business before it even happens! Our country would be so much better off if everyone took this point of view rather than complaining about how bad things are. However, I do realize that there are many people who love their comfortable misery. It’s become a lifestyle for them. We choose how we want to view life…………..
July 8, 2010 at 1:00 pm
[…] abound even in a recession By Brian Phillips, on July 8th, 2010 Dan Miller makes a great point in Whack-a-Mole: When one business lags, another explodes. If your business is suffering, what is the counterpart […]