Often the greatest dilemmas create the best opportunities.  In a small town, a person has a greater chance of truly making a difference.  The positive difference being made by individuals are seen each day with the care that businesses take in the character, detail and product presentation of their establishment.  Productive influences have been felt throughout the community with the many expansions of existing successful events and activities as well as moving forward with exciting new experiences for resident and visitors.  Waves of prosperity overlap - individual success impacts community success, and community success impact individual success.

The U.S. Census Bureau 1999-2000 indicates that non-metropolitan counties lag behind in population growth 6.6% from those with cities that exceed 50,000.  More that half of the 15,800 small towns in America lost population.  Most futurists predict this trend will continue well into the 21st century.  This trend affects not only this community; dozens of towns have suffered serious, disabling setbacks, only to rebound from those setbacks and essentially reinvent themselves - coming back stronger than before.

There is a charm to small-town living.  Even more, there is ingenuity in some small towns, an attitude and approach to problem solving, a vision and a work ethic that all work together to pump new life into a place that's barely a speck on the map - but is astoundingly vibrant and healthy within its borders.

Nobel Prize winner John Nash (1950) in his  Equilibrium theory  proposed changing win-lose situations to win-win  In the traditional win-lose situation, one entity - a person, a company, an organization or a country - vanquishes the opponent, winner take all.  Nash's theory allows for multiple winners; rivals can coexist and even mutually benefit from each other.

In the example of a business owner seeking to expand a profit margin, one solution is to undercut your competition, driving prices so low that competition is eliminated and the consumer wins.  But this is repeating the win-lose scenario; in this case, you ultimately lose as your profits go down.  The effect of such an approach is that the town pie, over time, becomes smaller.

The other approach is to expand the size of the pie.  Everyone wins when the pie becomes larger; everyone has a chance for a bigger piece.  Cooperation among "friendly rivals" within a town can result in greater benefits for all town residents.  When business, interest groups, and private citizens all work for the common good of the town, the town as a whole has a greater chance to prosper.  Big picture equals big pie.  Keeping the big picture in mind - the welfare of the entire town - steers you and your town toward that bigger pie.

The keys to success are not complex or mysterious.  Rather, they are grounded in common sense, "Can-Do" attitudes, and tried principles.  

Next Month:  "Back to the Future"