Change. Few people are fond of it, let alone thankful for it. It has been a tough year for the most seasoned entrepreneur. It is easy to run a business in fair weather with endless budgets. But true entrepreneurs are made when the environment heats up. Even if we evolve kicking and screaming, forced change can yield some surprising and unexpected rewards.

Think about it.  Opportunities still abound. Adverse conditions push us into new territories where we never would have thought to go. They cause us to see opportunities we never would have seen before. We improve our products. We improve our systems.  We emerge a lean, mean machine, better prepared for the next round in the fight. Increased obstacles provide the perfect climate for invention. Limitations forge real creativity. Unlikely heroes are born in crisis. Crises beget some of the best innovations. The best lesson:  We learn not to take even one customer for granted.

We believe a positive spirit is contagious. We believe in looking for the positive, even when it seems hard to find. And we hope the whole idea is positively contagious, because we have never met a truly thankful person that wasn’t truly happy.

So share an experience, lesson, or positive change that was born in adversity. It may be so small a change that no one else would even applaud, (but it’s a huge improvement for you). Post something small (like a song), that has helped you get through. It may help someone else get through. Small changes can change the world. A one-degree change is miles wide in future perspective.

Don’t be surprised if our Guest Author, Grace Guerilla, throws a banana to those with especially brave or creative posts. She is our Small Business Evolution Specialist, and she applauds healthy change.

We use this opportunity to express our thanks for each and every customer and for each and every relationship we have gained throughout the past 21 years. Our success is yours.

Prize Information:

All contributors’ names and/or email addresses will be automatically entered in a random drawing to win:

Grand Prize: Amazon Kindle Wireless Reader, valued at $259.00. And a $50.00 Kindle Store gift card to download your first few books.

Second Prize: An 8GB iPod Nano, valued at $149.00

Third Prize: A 2 GB iPod Shuffle, valued at $59.00

Fourth Prizes:  In addition to the prizes listed above, three local business owners will win a FREE consultation with Des Moines, IA area Platinum Master Action Coach, Monte Wyatt, valued at $495.00. You must be a business owner to win.

For more information on Action Coach, please visit www.actioncoach.com

Rules: No Purchase Necessary. Post between November 25^th and December 16^th 2009. You can comment as often as you like, but your name will be submitted into the drawing once. One prize per person. Winners will be contacted by email by the end of the business day on December 18,2009. Winners must respond by 5:00 pm on Dec. 21 in order to claim your prize and provide additional information to enable delivery of your prize. Winner may grant permission to use their picture and comments in future marketing. We reserve the right to remove inflammatory and offensive posts.

The views and opinions expressed in blog posts in thinc!Blogging about Business are not necessarily the views and opinions of the thinc! blog or of Etc! Graphics Inc.