Our town was fine until …

You’ve probably said something like this yourself: “Our town was fine until…” and you finish that sentence with “the factory closed down,” or “the oil boom went bust,” or some regulation hurt your town, or something. 

Eileen in Pullman, Washington, pointed out this tendency in a session at the Association of Washington Cities conference this year. Every town has that one thing they point to that their town was “fine until.” 

I replied that in Concrete, Washington, they say that things were fine until the concrete plant shut down.That was way back in the 1960s, but people still talked about it when I visited in 2011. Then someone from a neighboring town replied, “Oh yeah? We used to produce sandstone here. We still have people talking about how everything was fine until Concrete started up their plant in the 1920s!” 

So it’s not just your town where people are still talking about that thing that happened way back when as though it was the end of your town’s story. 

The funny thing is, even if that’s true, it’s useless information. There’s nothing to do with it. Sure, your history has value, your culture matters, and it’s good to know where you come from. But that’s not where we’re going.

The only useful information is what do we have right now, and what can we do with this. 

If you want to build your prosperity today and in the future, you still have one week left to get our video on how to Grow Your Own Entrepreneurs. 

Keep shaping the future of your town, 
Becky

PS – Wow, did y’all reply last week! I’ll have a lot more to tell you next week about what you told me, your stories and your towns. If you didn’t reply yet, you can now. Hit reply and tell me your town name. Right now!