I was born in 1975.  Now that I’m  a business owner, financial planner, and money coach  I find it interesting that not once have I heard my parents talk about gas  rationing in the70s, or how gas prices doubled, and interest rates were as high as 20% in the decade I was born.  History is a great teacher—if we pay attention.  I want to help all of us enjoy some perspective here.   Yes,  this is a blog about turning a profit in a Direct Selling Business, I get that.  But word on the street says that business owners (yes that’s you!) have a growing concern about their ABILITY to turn a profit in the coming years because of  gas prices, rising interest rates, and (now) flooding in the mid-USA destroying food crops.  If you’ll indulge yourself I think you’ll see that an informed perspective in today’s business climate can be the thing that makes or breaks your profit this year.  How?  The way you view things affects how and why you do things. 

Quickie History Lesson:

In 1973, when the gas crisis of the 70s began, the average income in America was $12,000/year, and a brand new house cost about $33,000.  A gallon of gas was $.40 , a new all-time high—and yes, they were freaking out about it!  The President (Carter) was distained by the public, and they were involved in a very unpopular war.  Sound familiar?  Just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, 1979 rolled around and the word EMBARGO became a household word. 

Enter 1979 gas prices: they DOUBLED to $.86 a gallon, and a barrel of crude oil hit an all time high ($25’ish).   Talk about a climate for hysteria… lines of cars wrapped around blocks to get to the pump, and gas rationing! 

In the 70s folks were driving heavy luxury vehicles like Cadillacs and Buicks.  They were concerned then, like we’re concerned now, about what it cost to fill up a tank of gas, pay their bills, and feed their families.  America cried to government, “REFORM, FIX IT, WE WANT OUR CHEAP GAS BACK!”    When government let us down (big shocker!) the business community, capitalists, environmentalists, and average people pulled on our greatest strength.  We didn’t solve the problem by relying on government.  We the people, of the United States of America, are a formidable, industrious, smart, creative, determined, and stubborn group of humans. Change came when the pain of staying the same was just unbearable.  (Perhaps next time we ought to have story time and remember the gall of our roots, with great epics,  like The Boston Tea Party…)  They adjusted, and as American’s adjusted it created a need for ingenuity to fix the problem.  This ingenuity created smaller cars, that were more gas efficient.  Think of VW Bugs, Fiats, and even Honda Civic kind of cars… little cars to got them where they wanted to go.  This kind of ingenuity was birthed out of need.  When ingenuity is infused with capitalism and entrepreneurialism, great, great, great things happen! 

In my next post, we’ll talk about what the doubling of gas prices is really costing you.

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