The author is the owner of Acorn Appraisal Associates, a 20 year old firm offering a wide range of quality appraisal services to the Financial and Business Communities in the greater Houston SMSA
The end of my calender year brings me to a beach front home rented and shared with 6-10 other couples whom we have known for forty years. We raised our children together, and come together as friends several times a year scheduled functions. One of those times is the week after Christmas in a 8-12 bedroom rental. 
The ladies engage in a week long slumber party. The guys schedule a round of golf each day at different courses in the area. A formal evening meal is prepared each day, assigned to each lady with her specialty dishes. One cooks, the others serve as helpers.
The week allows me time to try to finish books I may be reading, play golf with old friends, and reflect as I can't anywhere else on the big picture of my business and business in general. This year I brought The World Is Flat, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and The Legacy of Jihad. Finished the first read of The World Is Flat, almost finished Rich/Poor, and put The Legacy on the continue to work on list....
There are so many lessons that can be learned and applied in such a target rich environment.
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For instance, one dear friend in the oil service business owns a bearing supply company. On a drive to golf one morning, we were reflecting on the cycles of a business career: stay around long enough and you get to experience booms and busts and learn from each.
He related the story of the early 80's bust. His company had lost major customers, business was down, and the second round of layoffs had cut into the heart of the talent that made up his company. Good people he knew well, including their wives and children.
My friend had lunch with an old and successful oil wildcatter in the Wichita Falls area of Texas. I knew the fellow from the banking business I was in at the time. The friend was pouring out his troubles over lunch time drinks; how bad things were, how bleak the prospects. The wildcatter listened quietly. At the end of the lament he remarked that down turns represented opportunities, and those opportunities couldn't be found in the liquor laden lunch crowd they were among. Downturns were times to be knocking on doors, bouncing off the walls of the corridor that is the future, until the doors begin to open to new opportunities.
That was the last liquid lunch my friend had in that dark period, and he and his company survived.
Another member of my circle is in the machine shop business, a business notorious for extremes of the business cycle. Several years ago at this same year end gathering he told me of a unique valve he had developed and patented, one that was in growing demand in the oil patch. His one man shop with a helper could not manufacture the valve fast enough. Additionally, the investment in raw materials to produce the valves was a drain on his working capital.
I had been reading of the growing China economy and the out sourcing that was occurring there. I suggested to my friend that he might locate some Chinese machine shops to which he could supply the programs for completing the different components, and have them made and shipped to his local shop for assembly.
This year I asked how the business was doing. "Great! I've got three Chinese shops supplying my parts and I've doubled my volume each year the last three years." This from a high school graduate whose only experience and skill is a hands on machine shop worker.
Later in the week the topic was buying new trucks....several of the guys are truck advocates...I hate trucks...the bearing business friend related his successful experience with Toyota Tundras as a delivery vehicle; 150,000 miles, no repairs, great gas mileage. The machine shop friend remarked that he was a Ford man and would never buy a Japanese product because he still hadn't forgiven them for WWII. Furthermore, he thought it UN American to purchase a foreign product.
I choked on my coffee at that comment! The only fellow in the group who had now several years experience in out sourcing and off shoring espousing protectionists viewpoints! He didn't even see the juxtaposition his now successful business had placed him.
The lessons above apply to our appraisal businesses. Business is down in many areas of the country. The world is changing. We must learn to adapt. We might think our business and it's future is just local, but the likely survivors and even winners of the future will be those who bounce along the corridors that are our futures, look behind each door that opens, and consider each opportunity that presents itself with a wider view of the new world we are facing. You might find new products, new opportunities to deliver a better service to a changing world.
I'd first start by reading "The World Is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It has made me rethink what my business actually is, and what it must evolve into to meet the future. If you do, unlike my machine shop friend, you'll at least be prepared to rethink your entire world view and avoid his "moral" dilemma.
The author is the owner of Acorn Appraisal Associates, a 20 year old firm offering a wide range of quality appraisal services to the Financial and Business Communities in the greater Houston SMSA
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