Sometimes there are days that are exceptional. Today was one of those days.  I spent the morning at the Shepherd Center, a Catastrophic Care Hospital here in Atlanta. The founder, Alana Shepherd and her husband Harold gave a wonder two-hour tour through the beautiful facility, and educated me on the amazing history.

In 1973, just after graduating from UGA, James Shepherd (son of Alana and Harold) suffered a severe spinal cord injury while body surfing in Brazil. James was paralyzed from the neck down and spent the next five weeks in a Brazilian Hospital, struggling to survive. Alana and Harold Shepherd were frustrated with the lack of rehabilitation options in the Southeast…. I’ll let you read the rest of the story.

My words cannot do justice to what the Shepherd Center has not only accomplished in the past, but it is working on now and for the future. I would like to thank Dana Shepherd for inviting me to the center and we are excited about possibly working together with the Shepherd Center in the future. This is a place where miracles happen everyday.

How do you define core competencies? Have they changed since the downturn of the economy, or have you forgotten they even exist? For businesses to survive the continuing  economic crunch, they must revisit and refocus on core competencies. After all, they are what your business was built on in the first place.  Take a hard look at everything inside of that core, and possibly even redefining your core competencies. SmallBusinessNotes.com published an article with helpful tips on surviving the economic downturn that I would recommend any business owner read. If you can successfully refocus on your core competencies, you will come out of this downturn a stronger and more profitable business.

If you were a lion in Africa, at the top of the food chain and you had to find a way to survive a sustained drought, you would  change your hunting grounds, or you would perish. What would you choose?

Change is necessary to survive this down turn. 
Its not even close to business as usual.