My mother always taught me it was better to give than to receive. As a child I went with her on countless visits to elderly shut-ins. It made their day. While we were not wealthy back then, I was a witness to a richness which goes beyond any amount of money. Many of you reading this had similar experiences I hope, and if you didn’t something tells me that you are about to.
We are entering into a new era; some call it “Generation-G” for Generosity. Consumers are fed up with the other “G” word (Greed). We have all seen way too much of its ugly face recently in the fraud and corruption schemes being revealed in the national news.
I am a professional observer; I observe trends for Nashville Wraps as a part of my job. What I see happening in so many areas is a phenomena I call coming “Full Circle”. We as a people, a community, and a nation started out good in nearly every aspect. Then we went through a period of many years where we exported our jobs, became dollar minded, saw our leadership weakened and now are seeing the results of all that, and we do not like what we see.
Coming full circle brings us back to creating our own destinies, seeking the higher ethical ground, helping our neighbors, emphasizing character rather than worth and giving our customers good and honest value. We are done with uncaring companies, shoddy goods, and everything made anyplace but here. We are more interested in caring, sharing, giving, helping, and doing more with less. As a whole this is going to benefit the gift business, but consumers do not want or need any more ceramic whatnots, so pick wisely.
Our lives and aspirations are changing as well as our children’s. My grandfather, his father and on before him were farmers. Earlier this year I submitted an agricultural plan to the state of Tennessee and received all the documentation to be…yes, a “farmer”. My son wants to farm as well. We named our farm “Full Circle”…what else could it have been?
I see us coming full circle in numerous places in all type of business. We see it at Nashville Wraps all the time. My parents recycled during World War II to conserve precious materials needed for defense. Today Nashville Wraps’ employees recycle aluminum, steel, plastic and paper every day. We have reduced our garbage by 416 cubic yards in 2008 and recycled nearly 1500 cubic yards of cardboard. It has a positive cash flow, but moreover we are proud of what we are doing. It is like giving something back. It makes us think differently and little efforts like this are fueling our Generation-G.
I’m going to take more time this year to talk about Generation-G and coming full circle. It is affecting your business, your customers and your families. It will continue to do so. In President Obama’s recent address to congress he said that “Our best days are ahead of us”. I have heard it from John McCain and others recently as well. Typically I would ignore those clichés, but now they seem to have more substance and in fact I believe it too because I see us coming full circle.
Robby Meadows, Nashville Wraps
PS: Nashville Wraps designers see the same things and we are bringing many wonderful designs for Christmas 2009 and beyond that represent the realization of goodness, warmth, sharing and family. I will be publishing more on this exciting change in American life and coming full circle in many more areas.
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. 🙂 Cheers! Sandra. R.
This article is great; found it as a result of your newsletters which I love, as I do your blog. This is the first time I have responded, however.
I agree with you. It’s time for each of us to look to the good we have and turn this negative tide around!
Many of us are thinking the same thing. I see these changes not as negative, but as a shift in paradigms, or coming full circle to the good old days when people respected each other and each other’s property because it had value. They were grateful for the little things in life and the simple things. We didn’t need to have it all. We were satisfied with what we had, we only bought what we needed and we were happier and more family minded because we did not have so many choices to make. Too many choices with too many things takes up way too much of our time. It takes time away from our really living and appreciating the things which are important. It is my hope that life does not get too difficult for us financially, but I believe all of this is going to make everyone take a closer look at their priorities and will make us all work together to survive. Thanks for your article. I am glad there are others who are like minded. Or perhaps we are the positive ones that need to see the good in all things, even hard times.
Well I have been saying for years that John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and I are doing just fine. Finally I think that some people get what I mean by that. I had an advantage over people that were born in the mid 70s and early 80s I had a Dad that was just like the men I admired so much growing up, you know when I was 6 or 7 with that Gene Autry outfit on the pearl handle chrome six guns the shirt and cuffs hat and scarf, yeah and boots to match,the smoke from those cap guns was stifling. I was just like any other 17 year old the last time Dad made me see stars, I had it comming as I was being disrespectful to my Mom. I tromped off down the road 5 miles in Jan. with a short sleeve shirt in the snow. I was never so glad to see anyone when dad pulled up and asked me to get in the car. I was frozen, his apology was not out of his mouth before I was telling him that I was very sorry for what I had said, no other words were necessary. I have 2 sons and I have always said that anyone under 25 years old is in the pre brain stage that is baised on my past history and others I have observed. I now have hope as both of them are past that marker and I see a lot of myself and their graddad in both of them as well as their mom’s good scense. I also see that their best friends and wifes have those values that I thought never would be seen in this world of Greed and selfishness. I now see hope for this world for sure as those values of the past that I admired so much from those men and my Dad are still carried on today in others 35 years younger than I am.
Loved the article and the thoughts it was meant to convey. We are ready to put our money where our mouths are…let’s start MADE IN THE USA back into stuff. Be a supplier who does this and caption the ad – pay more & create a USA job. ….
I have shared your catalog over the past three years with other businesses that I feel could benefit from the products that you provide. However, I would not have done that had I not been treated so well and so quickly as a customer. As you suggested, full circle means many things, but it begins and ends with each of us and our relationship with each other.
First of all, I love your articles!! Second, I wanted to say I love the generation G theory. Half of my business is from the purchase of gift items. That part is still going strong!! Because giving and caring never goes out of trend. And I find that more people are buying “cheer up” token gifts for friends going through rough times (job loss, divorce ,etc.) Also I myself am also sick of GREED!! Our business was a victim of credit card fraud with misuse of our debit card TWICE this past 6 months! And my parents were the victims of a ponsy scheme! Its definately time to move full circle!!
You’ve captured this portal beautifully. One of the delights of being a senior is having the confidence of knowing that when times are tough, people slow a bit and rethink their priorities. It is indeed full circle.
I am so delighted to have discovered you. Your packaging helps me make my customers feel special. Kindness and smile in a bag or box.
Thanks. We are such a small fish in your very big pond, but from any vendor who brings new and innovative ideas to the table, we listen. Our customers benefit and appreciate it when we adjust our business model to fit their needs. We are all in this together and do indeed need to get back to the basics of what our parents and grandparents (I’m a boomer) taught us.
What a refreshing article! I am so proud to be a customer of a company that is heading in a positive direction and thinking about others while doing that. Creative Expressions is a small gift basket company, but we are proud that integrity is a cornerstone of our business too.
Thanks for such an uplifting and inspiring story! It’s very refreshing in these tough and generally “negative” times. Can’t wait to read some more….Thank you!
Great article! You mentioned …
Coming full circle brings us back to creating our own destinies, seeking the higher ethical ground, helping our neighbors, emphasizing character rather than worth and giving our customers good and honest value.
I feel as if a company can offer such, they will be built to last!
Enjoyed the above artical. We too beleive a positive attitude will bring positive results. I beleive customers will come back to your business when they have had a good experience.
In the last two years, we have recycled cardboard, and installed a water cooler, instead of using plastic bottles. Ever bit helps and it does make you feel good to do “something”.
Thank you for the wonderful article above! Lets hope that all of us can find something positive to come out of these times we find ourselves. We here at Jac’s Urbanwear believe that our customers deserve a happy, fun, positive experience with service that goes “above & beyond”. It’s obvious that Nashville Wraps feels the same. It’s one of the ways we can all try to help people feel positive again…regardless of the negative news.