In the last few weeks, I have noted the retail and manufacturing locations of a small start-up for lease indicating they didn’t make it.  That’s unfortunate.

This particular start-up was like many others.  A guy had an idea.  He saw a niche that he didn’t think was being filled and he thought he could make it work.

Unfortunately, if the niche isn’t being filled, there’s a good chance that there is a reason for the void.  That’s not always the case, but it is an important one to consider.

I talked with this business entrepreneur many times.  He wanted to partner with us in a few areas, but we never found a way to make it work.  He had some creative approaches that could have worked.  One thing he attempted to do was to give customers a discount for allowing him to add his logo to everything he produced for them.  His idea was that getting exposure was important.  I don’t know all the details, but the exposure-for-discount tradeoff is one thing that couldn’t be sustained.

While getting exposure is critically important, controlling cost of goods may be even more critical.  And that is something small business owners frequently overlook.

If cost of goods is too high, there never will be cash flow to cover operating costs.

Making the long haul requires a consistent approach to marketing and exposure that must make sense for your particular business.  Screaming advertising can’t be maintained over the long haul.  And, discounts that undermine cost of goods ratios eventually erode the business model.

Going the distance requires consistent customer service and quality product.  It may not always provide the lowest price but will provide the best value.  Making small business sustainable is a lot more complicated than it appears.

Last week, thousands of religious conservatives joined a political rally at the Lincoln Memorial where they sat at the feet of neo-con superstar Glenn Beck.  Beck led them in a rally cry to return to the Christian roots of our heritage.

As Russell Moore so sweetly points out, there is a heretical problem with the whole rally. http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/

The Christian conservatives rallied around in a revival fervor drinking tea from a common chalice and following the newfound leader of the Christian conservative movement.

But, back in their churches, Christian conservatives would not associate with the likes of Glenn Beck.  They certainly wouldn’t call him brother.  Beck doesn’t even read the same Bible as Christian conservatives and follows a new revelation that evangelicals denounce.  As a Mormon, Beck is disqualified to lead any evangelical movement for revival.

Except, it is not an evangelical revival Beck is leading.  It is a political revival. As Moore says: “It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined ‘revival’ and ‘turning America back to God’ that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.”

So, in the interest of politics, conservative evangelical Christians find themselves dancing cheek to cheek with someone they otherwise wouldn’t take communion with — strange bedfellows indeed.

Too long we have been looking for an American gospel, when all along there has been a New Testament gospel that is far different than any American gospel has ever been or ever will be.  We probably won’t find it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

I came to that realization this weekend while going through some things we had put aside for our 27-year-old son to deal with.  It was most interesting to see which things attracted his attention the most and what impact they seemed to have had.

He focused most on a Hot Wheels collection box that folded out into an auto service center.  He observed that he had spent hours playing with that.  Now, he operates an auto service center.   He pointed out how the Hot Wheels kit had an operating lift and many other features of his current business.

He pulled a Pilot fuel truck out of the Hot Wheels collection and began an extended discussion about Pilot truck stops.  What had little significance 20 years ago falls into place now.

He talked about how when he travels he always stops at a Pilot truck stop because he has found them to be consistently reliable with good prices, diesel fuel, clean restrooms and good food.

That explains his sudden interest in politics, too.  During the recent primary election, he asked me to let him know when Bill Haslam would be in town.  I thought that pretty odd since I had never known him to be interested in politics.  A few days before the primary election, Haslam stopped in Clarksville on a final whirlwind tour of the state.  Andrew and I went to his rally. I was surprised again to see a Haslam sticker show up on his truck.

It all came together.   Andrew’s attraction to Bill Haslam’s campaign is tied to his positive impressions of Haslam’s Pilot truck stops.  His interest in Pilot truck stops is tied to his association with vehicles.

How much of that is tied to a Hot Wheels collection that included a service station and a Pilot Hot Wheels model?   Who knows?  Who ever knows what is going to have an impact

A friend last week posted his memory of an older family member at the time questioning whether or not our nation would ever overcome such a scandal as the move to impeach a sitting president.

We have survived the last 36 years to move on to newer and fresher scandals.  And, arch-villain Richard Nixon is all but forgotten.  Recently, an inquisitive young Army wife asked me why I decided to join the Army.  I responded that I had a personal invitation from Richard Nixon.  She looked at me quizzically and said, “Who?”  She is an intelligent young lady, but the concept of young men receiving draft notifications signed by the President of the United States was totally alien to her.

Her husband is in Afghanistan for his fourth combat tour.  He was a cadet when the country was racked by the 9/11 events of 2001.  Thousands of young men have boarded planes to Iraq and Afghanistan since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.  All have served in the military by choice.  From 1963 to 1975, thousands of soldiers boarded flights through Travis Air Force Base to the sound of distant thunder.  The vast majority of them were going by personal invitation from Lyndon B. Johnson or Richard M. Nixon.

The times have changed.  The scandals are different.  But, we move forward.  Are we wiser, or just older?  Have we learned from the past or do we just forget?

I’ve been watching this little Chinese restaurant near a crazy busy intersection in Clarksville.  It’s not one of the giants, but a small mom-and-pop with great lunch specials.  Over the years, they have grown and now realized change is necessary but ceasing business to make change is not an option.

They have undertaken a creative approach.  The small building has a banner that announces they are still open.  Otherwise, there is no way you could imagine they would be open.  The building is surrounding by new walls going up, new roof being raised and construction moving right along.

I noticed one evening that the business appeared packed with patrons despite the chaos of construction all around them.

Change is necessary.  Usually, we must continue operations while making change.  Despite the chaos and turmoil that change creates, we have to keep committed to making it happen.

At the same time, we have to let go of the past to embrace the change.   If we have a clear focus on the purpose for the change, we can put up with the chaos.  If we lose sight of the purpose, we lose our commitment to the change.

If we hold on to the past, we risk become irrelevant.

We can’t fear change because of the inevitable turmoil and disruption.  Those are necessary and essential.

We most often avoid change because we aren’t sure where it will lead.  That is were courageous leadership is essential.  Wise leaders will know that change must happen and even know how to lead the organization there.  A vision for the future is an essential element of leadership.

Like the little Chinese restaurant, churches must have guts enough to suffer through change to keep reaching their objective.  Are we willing to endure enough chaos to make necessary changes?  After all, our purpose is much more important than the little Chinese restaurant’s.  Is our faith equal to the guts of the mom-and–pop Chinese restaurant?

Unless he can trace his American heritage back to the 15^th Century with assurance of no inbreeding with English, Irish, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Spanish or whatever, he is not American-American.  There is something else to the left of the hyphen.

The truth is that none of us could gain registration through the American Kennel Club.  We’re all mutts.  Very few of us are pure breed.  Sorry if you find that insulting, but it is true.

So, why can’t we be friends?  We all came from somewhere.  Back in Genesis, God saw fit to split us up and give us different languages and ethnic origins.  We’re all God’s children.  Why can’t we act like it?

God loves all of us…red, yellow, black and white.  We just don’t trust each other — let along love each other. So, we wind up putting out all kinds of hate and distrust.  And, rather than building relationships with each other, we want to build fences and throw stones at each other.

After all, except for those American-Americans who were standing on the shore watching trouble come over the horizon in the 15^th Century, all off us got off the boat from somewhere at some point.  So, quit being so arrogant about being American.  You just ain’t all that.

It’s getting crazy.  Boot boy has become as disoriented as a coon dog on a moonless night.  Now, whinny boy has thrown a tantrum.

It seems that whinny boy, the runty little congressman from Chattanooga, is upset that one of his competitors has used an unflattering photo of him in a mailing.

Surely he understands the process.  He has used enough negative campaigning that he knows all the tricks.

Did he really expect a phone call like this:  “Whinny boy, this is truck stop mogul.   You know, the guy you have slung mud at. I need one of your best publicity photos to use in a mailing.  I want to be sure we use the most flattering photo you have.”

No, that’s not the way it happens.  The photo used was less than flattering.

What really troubles whinny boy is that he says it makes him appear of Middle Eastern origin.  That strikes fear in his heart.  He clearly understands that every red-blooded, conservative, tea-drinking Republican in Tennessee is distrustful of anyone who is not Anglo.  When you get back in the hills of East Tennessee, they know pretty quickly that you ain’t one of them.  If you don’t look like them, talk like them, and think like them; they know immediately that you ain’t from around here.  And, those folks are the core of his support base.  That’s why a campaign based on fear rather than ideas works so well in Tennessee.

He countered with a quickly produced commercial that is so packed with code words that you have to be a card carrying member of one of three ultra right wing groups to know what he was saying.  If your not clued into the language, it sounds like just a bit of fluffy political rhetoric.  If you know and understand the language, it is frightening – very frightening.  I know we are supposed to trust the process, but it makes me nervous.

Back in the day when the sign was gleaming new, it likely would have boasted “Color TV” because that was a real drawing card.  But, is there anything other than color cable TV?

The idea of trying to make something old and worn out attractive by adopting some new features doesn’t work.  The fleabag motel may have cable TV, but it is still pretty much outdated and unappealing.

Embracing new concepts requires a different mindset.  It requires making major, significant changes, not just adding a few updated features.

When it comes to church, are we trying to offer color cable TV to a generation with high-speed internet and iPhones?

If we try to make church appealing to a new generation by adding a few updated features to the old concept of doing church, it is still old school.

A new generation of worshipers is not looking for a few upbeat songs and a speaker without a tie.  They are looking for a commitment to worship that embraces them.  It involves a different style of authentic relationships.  It requires a different approach to communicating.  No matter what the songs are, they need to be engaging.  And, no matter how the speaker dresses, he needs to be challenging them with solid, well-founded biblical truths presented in a way that is relevant to them and their world.

If we’re doing anything else, it shows.  The new generation we are trying so desperately to reach drives right on by.  And, our message goes unheard.

That indictment of corporate America is personified in the fate of BP chief Tony Hayward.  Hayward spent 20 years as a corporate ninja fighter before becoming head of BP three years ago.  Although he promised to focus on safety and to change the company’s champagne culture, he managed the latter and failed at the former.

Stockholders were pleased that he was making the company fiscally stronger but didn’t notice, didn’t know, or didn’t care that the safety issue was a pending oil well explosion.

Now, after more than three months of being bothered with the distraction of a Gulf oil disaster, Hayward has been replaced as head of the corporate giant.  If a moral compass existed, Hayward would be limping away from BP in shame and poverty as he was fired and stripped of any company benefits.  Not so.  Hayward is being sent to Russia to a plum BP post with a pay raise. Hayward got rewarded for being inconvenienced with the Gulf oil spill!

I have friends who are BP stockholders.  They are morally focused and environmentally conscious.  Over the years, they have enjoyed the financial success of their stock but have been hard pressed to come up with defenses for the company’s environmental practices.  With a corporation as large as BP, few stockholders have the knowledge, ability, or clout to have an impact even if they tried.

That’s not the America we started out to be.  That is the America we have become.  And, after more than a century of corporate control, it will be impossible to reclaim the moral compass.   There will be other disasters.  I’d place bets on Russia for the next fuel-related disaster.