Young friend, pick up any newspaper these days. Or, check your industry subscription mails. Or, any news website or blog. Almost every writer worth his uncle’s salt, who has something to write about the economy, has his or her own doomsday predictions. There is just no hope, is their consensus. Just give it all up (Blackberries, cars, jobs, kids, homes) and walk away to the jungles.

All forms of modern, urban, human civilizations have come to a grinding halt. Because they see, for instance, that all the airline companies are in dreadfully bad shape and are grounding more and more planes. Which means you cannot fly anymore. All retailers are crawling on their stomachs and starved for margins and hence will be forced to shut down. Which means you can’t shop anymore. All Telecom companies are laying off thousands and some are bound to shut down any day. Which means your expensive, slick, high snob value cell phones and blackberries can be used to scratch your backs.

And, the real estate companies have been crushed to mother earth and grounded for life- instead of seeing their fortunes rise like their skyscrapers. And who wants to forget the big banks? They have all closed counters and went away with all our hard earned money. So, if the doomsday predictors and their ‘severe economic recessionary trend will continue to batter stocks and companies fortunes resulting in downward growth in most economies and therefore leading to unending massive layoffs” theories are indeed true, and, if there are no shops, cell phones, homes, planes and bank savings, why don’t we all abandon our cities and live off fresh fruits in nearby jungles?

Well, the point has been made, even at the risk of overindulging in redundant rhetoric. But, pray, oh pray, can we please spare ourselves from soaking our eyes in words of despair? The world has been worse to many and generations before us have experienced the worst.

If we look up ‘underdog’ in any reasonable dictionary (hope you did not sell yours to make some money during these dark, ugly days of recession), this beautiful word- underdog, tells you a few inspiring things.

The underdog, in sports for instance, is the individual or team which is working so hard to win and everyone would like to see them win.. Everyone loves an underdog. But the underdog has a slim chance. He has no history of being the best or the biggest. There are several odds stacked against him. But he sure is working his way up to win- come heaven or hell.

Now, let us connect the word ‘underdog’ with another inspiring one’ entrepreneur’. Who is an entrepreneur? Here’s a simple definition- An entrepreneur is someone who attempts to organize resources in new and more valuable ways and accepts full responsibility for the outcome.

Now, most entrepreneurs started off as an underdog, what with very little capital, human resources or infrastructure to begin with. But they built their companies, step by step, clinging to the tails of their compelling ideas and believing in them. And entrepreneurship has been happening for centuries( just that they invented a long word to describe it). Thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs, over the last several hundreds of years built the basis of what we see as the economic world today- providing billions of people with thousands of products and services while also providing opportunities to work and earn a living.

However, today, we have a more crowded world. So, more is the need for products and services. And, therefore more the need for innovative ideas. But, then there’s the rest of us too- the worker bees. The ones who have been hired to think, create, plan, contribute, discuss, and debate ideas, thoughts, suggestions and execute them so that the organizations we work for don’t just thrive but prosper.

We are at a stage, where the economy is telling us- this is not enough. We need more (ideas, thoughts, ventures, initiatives to succeed) to help turnaround the numbers. So, young ladies and gentlemen, do we then stop worrying about the economy and the lay offs and every other piece of negative news that is hitting our mailboxes so hard and so often? And, instead, draw as much inspiration from the leaders who went out and started an organization and then hired folks such as you and me to help business grow?
And, remember this- (yes, more preachy stuff), if you have understood, experienced and participated in the pains and sorrows of building a team, a product, an application or participated in any initiative where you took on leadership roles at those levels expected from you, then you are one of those this society needs- a future budding entrepreneur, and the world has one more underdog they would love to rever!