That is one pissed off kitty. Guess he got tossed in the drink and isn’t real happy with that fact. But then no matter how ticked he is irrelevant. He’s still wet; in the water and needs to swim out of the situation to survive. In other words, suck it up and get the job done.

For those not familiar with the term, “suck it up” is defined by one online source (urbandictionary.com) as:

“To endure a period of mental, physical, or emotional hardship with no complaining.”

or as per the second definition:

“To cope with something unpleasant without complaining–usually because you have no choice.”

I would say that about gets it right.

I sent this picture to a number of friends and associates around the world in reference to the current world economic slowdown and the results were interesting. A lot found it amusing but the only group that universally found it funny were US business owners. A result that got me thinking about why that would be and is there anything of value in that observation.

OK, first for all the obsessive statisticians out there no the data set isn’t sufficient to really draw a conclusion to satisfy the requirements of Statistics 101. But then I learned a long time back it’s this sort of “gut stuff” that matters in business and besides I never met any rich statisticians. As per my earlier post, Opportunity Knocks, one of my beliefs is that successful entrepreneurs learn how to laugh at most of what life throws at you and move on. Be it an unexpected toss in the “drink” (as per our ticked off kitty) or a round of financial pain known as bankruptcy. They find a way to reasonably deal with the adversity and keep focused on the core issue of building the business.

When I was an active kayaker I had my share of “unexpected tosses in the drink” ( as in swimming in big rapids because you weren’t successful in rolling the capsized kayak) and just a year ago at the end of December 2008 I had to file for personal and business bankruptcy. A combination of economic slow-down and credit card practices that amount to a legalized criminal cartel in the US finally took their toll. My problem was I wasn’t a Wall Street banker or a well connected executive of a failed major corporation so I had to file bankruptcy instead of receiving government aid and bonuses but I digress.

This year (2009) I’m well into a solid rebound by redefining my consulting business and expanding into several new areas. And that picture above is my current background for my main Linux work station. That’s right, about 20 times a day when I see my desktop I’m reminded to “Suck it Up, Cupcake” and get on with being successful. What happened last week doesn’t matter.

Some folks will find all this rather “edgy”; in other words confrontational and lacking politesse. But there I believe is one of the traditional core attitudes that in general used to, and still may, make American businesses so successful. They knew (perhaps still know) how to “suck it up” when hard times hit and ultimately get the positive results. Wimps, whiners and victims be damned.