glass half full

It's never easy to do business forecasting, but this year is a total mystery.  Every forecast discussion seems to start with a conversation to agree how optimistic or pessimistic to be.  It reminded me of the old "glass half full/glass half empty" test.  Most of what I'm hearing is pretty pessimistic.  And it's only a few weeks into January.

In this kind of climate, what do we have to lose?  It's a good year to take a gamble and try something new.  If it's generally agreed that it's going to be a rough year, the "same-old, same-old" approach isn't going to set the world on fire. 

On the theme of "glass half full," here's a bonus cartoon from the archives – nearly five years ago.  Starring Jon, the market research guy I worked with who suggested the cartoon idea.