Perhaps there were more than a few in the assemblage of about 100 who wondered just what it was that the preacher man could say that would have a bearing on them, particularly in a business sense. It wasn't long before they realized that the words he was delivering amounted to more than just a generic message of good will and love for our fellow man amidst this, the holiest of all seasons.

Actually, his message was one of hope; and an appropriate one it was for what many refer to as “these times.” It was a well-delivered and much needed message of optimism, having to do with things like “keep your chin up” and “we'll come back from ‘this' as we always have.”

My marketer's ears perked up upon hearing one of the good preacher's remarks, in particular. Indeed, this pastor, Frank Switzer, unlike most in the clergy, had a successful business career before taking up the cloth; trading, as it were, earning and saving bucks through his women's apparel stores for collecting and saving souls. While I know it was more than his business orientation speaking when he spoke the following remark, I couldn't resist squeezing his words through my ever-present business filter.

At a key point in his dissertation, the pastor said, ”Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% what we do about it.”

This called to mind my own fundamental homily; one that recently, more than ever, I have been addressing to associates, clients, prospects, the 7500 readers of our e-mail newsletter and anyone else who will listen. My little message is short and sweet, and as the balladeer said when introducing his next song, it goes something like this: What “we do about it” -- that 10% which is happening to us – (for instance, in terms of the economy) had better not be .. . nothing.

After all, if you believe the pastor's words – and I AM a believer – 90% percent is an awful lot of anything to waste through inactivity, lethargy, fear or anything else. Simply stated, as our top sergeant in the U.S. Army used to scream at the troops,” Do something – even if it's wrong!” Of course, it's better if what we do just happens to be effective, at that.

We interrupt this message for the following bulletin: Five minutes ago a businessman rang my front doorbell. He was selling “energy saving windows and doors.” One glance, and my instincts, told me was not merely a door-to-door salesman (remember those?), but, rather, the owner of a small business, whose appearance on my doorstep demonstrates he is willing to do anything .. . but nothing.

Distasteful and demeaning as it may seem on the face of it, many of us might take a lesson from this doorbell ringer. The lesson: Whether it be spending some of that vacation money on marketing, calling on people who have never heard of us, networking like mad, or – yes – even knocking on a few doors (by e-mail or knuckle), my message is simple:

In “these times,” anything is better than nothing.