I don’t want to mince words here, but I thought I should address some concerns that you and your families are having about these economic times and the mess we are in.

Like you, I go home and watch the news shows and wonder about our future. Will this plan work or won’t it? Find me an expert who says it will and there are three more who say it won’t.

I guess I could worry more about it, but I have resolved to let “them” worry about the stuff they need to worry about, and I will worry about what I can control or influence. I control my own attitude about the future, about the services and value we are bringing to our customers and to a somewhat smaller degree I can even control or influence your attitude, by creating an environment that is realistic about the future, but positive too.

Over our past, we have solved a lot of problems, as a country and as a people, and here at the Company. Many said we would not make it. Our success attitudes and expectations are baked into us by our forefathers, who came here under stress and pushed over boundaries. It is who we are. I see no reason why this will change.

The real change will not come from any beaucracy, but from people like you and me. They think they bring change, they don’t. We bring change because we have to, there is no one but us in the room, we are alone in this and the only way we can get through it is to do what it is we always do—we think better, faster, we work harder, smarter, we serve our customers and each other more efficiently, creatively, professionally. We have higher expectations on ourselves.

What does this mean for you? It’s easy. It’s hard, but it is easy. It’s like the football team who is behind at halftime. When they get back to the sideline, almost any fan can tell how the team will do in the second half….we can see the emotion, the positive can-do spirit. In some teams you can this spirit squashed with the first fumble or interception, you can see it in the players’ faces who must be thinking, “Oh no, we’re not going to win.” But then, a momentum shift in the game, a fumble recovery maybe, occurs and attitudes are again soaring. We need a momentum change or even better, a momentum changer. You can be a momentum changer. Seldom in one’s career do you get a chance like this. Once you get the internal adrenaline rush of being a game changer, of someone who did his part so well that others caught the resulting enthusiasm; well, you will never want to go back to your original role and your attitude about it.

You were picked to join our company because you had certain skills we needed. We thought you could help us. But you know the overriding attribute that you had? Each one of you have demonstrated an achievement level or an expectation level of future success. Something in your past told our hiring managers that when confronted with adversity, you achieved, NO MATTER WHAT…often in the face of long odds and no help.

Now it’s not just your effort we need, it is everyone’s extra effort, now is the time to step up, often for no extra credit and certainly for no extra time off or extra raises, and double up your own efforts.

For those of you in the back who are perhaps rolling your eyes a bit, this short speech is not really for you. It is for the rest of you, who know I’m right, and who want to join me in making a new name for ourselves here. We are in this boat together, you can either help row or ride along. Don’t slow us down by drilling holes in the canoe.

The next time you hear someone talk in the abstract about helping others or how this program will help us all, just remember it starts, it really does start, right here. Right here at this level, in our small company, where few even know what we do. You have that kind of influence, of power, to get the turnaround started. See, the ‘turnaround’ starts when thousands of companies with people just like you decide to make it happen.

Let’s get started now.