The Common Trait of Highly Productive People, Companies, and Countries is a sense of urgency. In just the past 24 hours we have had a human tragedy in Haiti. No one knows how many people have been killed by the earthquake that has devestated their capital city, Port- au- Prince. The president of the United States has said that aid will be sent immediately. CNN has already reported the sighting of American military personnel. That is an example of responding with a sense of urgency.
America’s response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor was accomplished with a sense of urgency. Henry Paulson’s message to Congress for aid to the banking community was quickly answered with TARP. However, America’s response to the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina did not show the same sense. California’s serious debt problems have not been addressed with a sense of urgency.
Corporations have also had mixed responses to their predicaments. General Motors did not apply sensible action to their faltering sales for years. That is a company that didn’t need urgency. All they needed was attention and they failed. Union Carbide showed no sense of urgency in the chemical spill in Bhopal, India.
The entertainment and news industries are fast to respond. With falling rating it didn’t take long for NBC to determine that Jay Leno’s primetime show had to move to late night or be canceled. The making of Avatar took two years (excluding the writing). All the networks have significant reporters in Haiti in just 24 yours. All of them had reports on their news programs within hours of the earthquake.
We need a sense of urgency in getting our economy functioning properly. The politicians would rather squabble. Their behavior ought to give us the motivation to show them the door. Unfortunately democracy does not provide a sense of urgency.
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