Business is like a kidney stone...

I woke up yesterday with back pain. While I've had a sore back before, this was different. I assumed I had "slept wrong" and that was the culprit. But as the day progressed I began to wonder if it was actually something else. I've watched my wife endure several bouts of kidney stones, and based on the pain she experienced, it was clear to me that this was not something that I wanted to emulate. So, I searched the internet to see if my condition is in fact kidney-stone based. I found the following image:

Granted, the body in this illustration is shaped differently than my own (thank goodness) and the marked pain is on the opposite side than I am experiencing. However, this (along with the accompanying text) was sufficient to convince me what I am in for. A quick call to my Dr. and I learned that there is nothing they can do to help me; I just have to drink lots of water and let it pass. They did write me a prescription for Vicadin (which probably makes me think this blog entry is much more clever than it really is), which was very helpful. They also asked me to "capture" the stone if at all possible, so they can see what caused it. That should be no problem, since the same web site that helped me to self diagnose, shows me how to capture the stone...

Once again, I can see where I will have to use some imagination to develop the tactics specific to my situation.

I woke up this morning feeling much better. I foolishly assumed that I must have passed the thing last night and I was over the hurdle. Guess what, mid-morning and the pain was completely back...

And that really does make me think of the current state of many businesses.

• There's much pain to be endured at the moment, but there's hope in sight.
• If we can survive the present the future holds great promise.
• There have been some false moments of hope, only to find that we still had a ways to go.

As my mother always used to say, "this too shall pass". In the meantime, pass the Vicadin.