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I don’t know why people in the business realm are scared of a down-swinging economy. It gives you a great chance to seize opportunities when people who should be scared of their poor and volatile investments are cowering and watching the sky as it falls. This is a great time to make safe and smart, not necessarily un-risky, decision.

Rupert Murdoch puts it well when talking about his own investments:

“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

Gary Vaynerchuk, photo by

Gary Vaynerchuk also does a great job explaining this to his readers and subscribers. Big companies are scared right now because they are uncertain of what sort of returns their monetary investments will make. People like us—Gary, you, and myself—don’t need to worry as much, if at all, about financial investments in our efforts to become successful. What matters most and is consistently valuable is your time and effort. Gary would say it only matters that you bust it, day in and day out.

Today I saw his talk at the New Media Expo earlier this year that I found from his Twitter page (@garyvee; follow him if you know what’s good for you, and especially if you don’t). It’s a great summary of the core values Gary has toward success, and the great thing is that they all revolve around passion and effort and devotion to your idea. No VC’s, no miracle strokes of luck, and no sympathy for slacking.

Do you agree? Should people invest their time and passion to compensate for the risk of investing money currently?