A cab driver’s smirk

I was riding in a taxicab last Tuesday night in Manhattan after seeing the Broadway musical "Wicked." My wife, her sister, and a friend were riding in the back seat, so I sat up front with the driver.

The driver was from Bangladesh and appeared to have consumed several energy drinks close together.

As we entered Times Square, taxicabs fighting for position, our cab collided with another cab. Fortunately we were going slow and the result was a few scratches and bruises left on the taxicabs. All persons were uninjured.

Our cab driver stayed in the car and just rolled down the window. The other cab driver got out of his car and walked over to our taxicab. He appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent too. I watched these two gentlemen argue, negotiate and gesture for several minutes, but in the end they decided not to call the police. Why? Because, according to our cab driver, by the time they called the police and completed the accident report they would have lost two hours of time that they could be making money.

What do you know. Fellow entrepreneurs finding a practical way to deal with government regulation.

As we went on about our business the taxicab driver asked me where we were from. I replied, “Arkansas,” then with a smirk and a slight grin he asked, “How do you feel about Obama beating you?”

I was a bit shocked at the question. I did not expect a taxi cab driver born in Bangladesh speaking with a heavy foreign accent to even know where Arkansas was located much less know that it was a “red” state.

“Don’t let my sister-in-law see that grin on your face or she will whip your butt when you stop the taxi,” I replied.

He just grinned bigger.

How would you answer the cab driver if he asked you, “How do you feel about Obama beating you?”

I’m a 50-something white college-educated male professional, bred and born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, raised Southern Baptist (now Presbyterian). Unless I’m at church, I hear my family and friends express intense anger and resentment, sometimes accented with colorful adjectives when discussing their feelings regarding President Obama’s reelection. Why? President Obama’s promises and policies are a threat to their value system, their way of life, and their livelihood.

These feelings have validity. Many of us can all expect our income taxes to increase with this money redistributed by the government to other demographic groups, while at the same time we struggle to save for our retirement or our children’s college education.

Business owners can expect government regulations to multiply as well as the cost of compliance. Conservative Christians can expect more liberal social values to be promoted. But the truth is, if you identify yourself as a loser, there is somebody else that is viewing their self as a winner. But here is what you might be overlooking. With change comes opportunity.

I can’t tell you today what opportunities will present themselves. But neither can you if you focus on change as a personal threat. But I can promise you the opportunities will be there.

Business owners and professionals, think about what the management guru Peter Drucker said in his book “Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Practice and Principles.” In the opening paragraph of chapter two he stated, “Entrepreneurs innovate. Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. It is the act that endows resources with the new capacity to create wealth.”

A few pages later he says, “The overwhelming majority of successful innovations exploit change.”