Social Strategy Podcast, episode number 40. Welcome to the Social Strategy Podcast, where it's all about making the most of your business with smart tips on what's working now in social media, online business, and good old-fashioned networking. And now your host, who's also known as Ross Quiara on Twitter, Vernon Ross. Hey, what's up everyone?
Welcome to another episode of the Social Strategy Podcast, bringing you the best of online business, social media, good old-fashioned networking, and mindset, even though it's not on Monday. So, you know, when I guess I think about the past couple weeks, I mean, to date the podcast, this is December, 2014, and a couple of really significant things have happened in the country. You have the Ferguson thing that happened right here in my hometown of St. Louis, with the Michael Brown shooting and the decision that came after that to not indict the police officer that was involved in that shooting, and then just today, December 3rd, 2014, the New York case with Eric Garner, and the guy that was choked to death, he was putting in a chokehold and ended up dying as police were trying to arrest him.
And I don't know where you sit on both these issues, and it doesn't really matter to me where you sit on these issues, because I'm not going to get into which side of the issue is right or which side of the issue was wrong. Because, quite honestly, at this point, I think it detracts from the situation. There are some things that need to happen in this country to improve these situations, bottom line. But the problem that I've been seeing, experiencing and witnessing is a sense of hopelessness, and losing hope that this is ever going to get better, and feeling that it's quite honestly getting worse.
And you have to have hope when it's hopeless. That's the entire point. Hope's only lost if you stop looking for it. And so in the podcast today, I just wanted to talk about maintaining hope for these businesses.
I mean, it's desperate times, and having hope is vital. And I mean, absolutely mandatory for small business owners at this point in time, especially in this city, because there are so many things destroyed in those fires in Ferguson. And you have to maintain a sense of hope and a sense of gratitude and a sense of thankfulness and a sense of happiness, even during times like this. It's essentially important to be grateful for the current situation.
And I know that that's a difficult concept to grasp for a lot of people, but there's so much to be grateful for. If you're listening to this right now, you have something to be grateful for, because you could not be able to listen to this, or you couldn't be around anymore. There's so much to be grateful for. If you're a small business owner in the Ferguson area, hopefully you were insured.
With some of the people that didn't have enough insurance, people have started GoFundMe campaigns and raised money. More than they probably would have gotten for their insurance or from their insurance to rebuild their businesses. Some amazing things are happening. There are people that are stepping up as activists to fight against the injustices that some communities are experiencing.
And quite honestly, that blacks are experiencing in this country at the hands of the police. And you may not feel that way about this particular situation, but it is a reality that exists. And there is some unfair treatment. And fortunately, it's not all police officers, because I've experienced, I've had good experiences and bad experiences, more bad than good, but that doesn't change my perception of the police at this point, because I'm hopeful that it's not the entire system, and that the entire system is not corrupt.
And that people have just gotten into the habit and into the thing that makes it easiest to behave in the way that we've seen the police and officials and everyone involved in the situation behaving. The people that chose to express their emotions in a poor manner, in looting businesses and setting fires and being destructive. And those people lost hope. And when you look at it, they had to have lost hope.
And there had to be this immense void within their life where hope just didn't exist. And the only thing they could hope for was to run into some place, take something, and get a momentary sense of gratitude for being able to have something. And it's a sad state when you really think about it. You can get disgusted when you see it on TV, but when you really look at it, it's like what is it that these people are doing?
They're taking things, but it's not really about that. It has to be about just a total lack of understanding, a total lack of hope, a total lack of thankfulness and gratefulness in their lives for the current situation that they're in. Because quite honestly, a lot of people are in dire situations. And when you lose hope, sometimes you just don't feel like you have a choice other than to act out.
I personally don't feel that way, but there are a lot of people that just, they're not at the same place, and that's how they react, and it's unfortunate. And all we can do is push forward, educate, reach out, and rebuild. So guys, I hope this message just serves you, and I hope that you're inspired by this message, and I hope that you do something to make a change in your community. There was a priest, and at the end of his life, he was disappointed because he wanted to change the world.
And he's on his deathbed, and he's talking to this other priest that's given him his last rights, and he goes, I'm so disappointed. I wanted to change the world, and I wasn't able to change the world. So I gave up on trying to change the world. I just figured I would change my country.
And I thought for years to change my country. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't change my country. I couldn't persuade people to do the things that they need to do that's right for them.
I just couldn't do it. I wasn't able to achieve that goal. So as I started getting older and slowing down, I thought, well, you know what? Maybe I can just change things in the state that I live in.
And I tried up until I got a little bit older and couldn't do as much. And I wasn't able to change things in the state that I lived in. So I thought, OK, I'm slowing down and getting older. I need to just change things in the community that I live in.
And I couldn't change the things in the community that I live in. And now, as I'm here at the end of my life, I realize that I should have started with myself and the people around me. So think about that for a little bit and start with yourself. What are the things that you need to change within yourself to be more hopeful, to be more grateful, and to be more thankful for the things that you have?
Then go to your family and from there, maybe that will help change your community. All right, guys, I'm going to go ahead and get out of here. This has been mindset Monday and boils and do's. There's a lot of stuff going on.
I just cannot continue to do the podcast without paying some attention to it and just expressing some of the feelings that I have about it. And the best way to know how, and that's to talk to you guys. So until the next episode, guys. There's nothing other I can do.
How I want to try. No matter how hard I'm trying. I'm all the age you can see the end of hers. I'm all the stages, no one can ever go.
So I want to try. No matter how I'm in the middle of all the storms and use, nothing ever I can do. How hard I'm trying.