Ever watch a spine tingling movie?  Ever know someone with curvature of the spine? Ever glance at the catchy title on the spine of a book?

Get a spine for manufactured housing success!  The wisdom of the ages is found in the written (and spoken) Word.  Reading or listening to such wisdom and applying it is thus a sure path to manufactured housing success.

You may have thought of ‘Get a Spine’ as ‘get a backbone’…

…and we certainly need backbones to survive and thrive in the current, challenging economy and business environment.  But we also sell America’s affordable housing option!  So we have the right home product at the right time.

On a fairly routine basis, messages or calls come in saying ‘thanks,’ ‘appreciate the positive approach,’ ‘keep up the solution orientation,’ etc. Messages also come in saying, ‘quit being a rah rah cheer leader,’ or ‘quit being so MH establishment oriented,’ or ‘why don’t you share new ideas, new writers,’ etc?  What is amazing is that reader-commenters also wrote or say, ‘you have a great mix of new faces and recognized pros among your writers!’  In other words, how someone reacts has to do with the person writing and their outlook!  For the record, we have new faces along with seasoned pros on our home page Feature Articles all the time! See About Us for the many ways your voice can be heard on MHMSM.com.

Broadly speaking, there are two possibilities for our Industry: 1) there are solutions for returning to financial health or 2) there are none.

There are either ways to better serve the public and improve our image thereby, or there are none.  As one American legend put it,

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.

– Henry Ford

If you know someone who thinks it is all hopeless, tell them to figure out the best way to exit the business, OR tell them to read our pages – including our INspiration blog pages – routinely, and adjust their outlook!

Seriously, we KNOW there are challenges.  We are here because we also KNOW there are Industry success stories right now, and others are in the making.  Some plants are closing, but I spoke this week with a gent who is preparing to open a new facility!  Success? Or failure? Or as the Sage of Omaha puts it, and as we echoed in our Success, Manufactured Housing Style feature article:

“The best time to buy is when there is blood on the streets!”

– Warren Buffett

Get a spine!  Drive, wisdom and discipline get things done! Read a book (with a perfect bound ‘spine’ ) that may help you with your professional or business challenges. I am currently reading How the Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins, and plan a review for you in the days ahead.

Collins, a business author who does years of work with a team of university level researchers, has penned the cautionary volume How the Mighty Fall, and why some Companies Never Give In, which many in our Industry need to read to avoid falling into the death spiral for their business.

Speaking of spines, George F. Allen has recently penned an item he shared with me, that will likely be featured here at MHMSM.com in the days ahead.  For the thousands who have not yet seen or read this apparent broadside, it looks at first blush to be a spine-tingling body slam on some association executives.  GFA and I exchanged some discussion on the topic, as our experiences are different on the topic of association executive directors.  Stay tuned for that exchange coming up here on our pages in the days ahead.

For the moment, what I believe George, I and thousands of industry pros like yourself would say is that no two association executives are alike, and not all associations are created equal.  Some are performing amazing efforts to get and keep their members informed, involved and included in the process of navigating these challenging times, SUCCESSFULLY.  No association exec is an island; we all need others to pitch in and lend a hand.  It is that positive collective effort that can make the difference between survival, success or the long slide into professional oblivion.  Association Membership means involvement, if you want to benefit the most and get the most bang for your buck.

Please check out our events calendar, as there are lots of great events coming up in various parts of the country.  Some have a fee; others are free; like the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show In Tulsa, OK – with Industry Trade Days this April 28-29.  Public Days for the Tulsa Show run through May 1st.  Click on the link above for information on that show and click here for their latest updates on the fine food, folks, fun and fabulous networking, business building, great show homes and more you can see.

FYI, If you missed their new trade days video, please go back to my previous blog and view it now.  We will be there presenting our “Dominate your Local Market“ seminar – free – and we hope to see you there.

Readers are leaders, in potency or right now.  In this podcast era, listeners can be leaders, too.  If you – or your team members! – are not signed up for our weekly emailed news updates or daily news podcasts, click on those links to sign up free in seconds.  Does your office administrator read our pages?  Do you want your staff – her or him –  influenced by the main stream media that just doesn’t get our Industry?  Or do you want them to be Influenced by the MH!SM.com pro-Industry media resource?

You don’t need to spend tons of cash to have a research department; just visit here for our Daily Business News and Market Report or listen on your PC, iPhone or net book.

The discipline – the spine – of reading good business books, or of reading news and views you can use found here daily is priceless. If you saw the names of the people who have already signed up, they read like a Who’s Who in this Industry!  If they are here, and when thousands of ‘mom and pop’ independents are here, when 37,000 pros visited in January, 2011, you know you are in good company.

Thanks for spending some time with me; now please read the news or some article on the home page you haven’t read yet! # #