Monday Morning Coffee

Typically the unemployment rate would affect mortgage rates, but last month the decline from 4.5% to 4.4% brought the unemployment to the lowest level since May 2007, and had little affect on rates.However, in last month's meeting the Fed made no change in the federal funds rate and there was no change in the language describing the Fed's policy. 

The result is consistent upward pressure on mortgage rates and another anticipated increase this summer.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. ~ Thomas A. Edison
He was starting a delivery business… he was making a promise to make deliveries faster than his competitors… he had a plan that covered every detail, every contingency, every dollar that would be spent and thus earned, and he knew he was destined for greatness.

After all of his planning, countless hours of work and a grand opening that would launch this new venture into the stratosphere, he received an abysmal 6 orders to start his illustrious career in delivery.Yes, 6 orders is a few hundred dollars in revenue, and maybe a bicycle delivery company in New York could have survived it, and though it might not pay the bills, maybe a document delivery company in San Francisco could have started with such a slow first day and then made a comeback.

But 6 orders totaling a few hundred dollars in revenue will kill a delivery business with the overhead of Jet Airplanes, a payroll of employees that included highly paid pilots and well, millions of dollars at stake.Thus, since business did not increase, the life span of this new delivery venture was literally 1 month.With the intense belief and desire to make his venture succeed, he refined, re-tuned, re-planned and made the changes needed to exceed the original 6 orders.With a new grand opening, orders did exceed 6, but were still not promising, however, with excellent service, promises delivered and repeat and new business growing quickly, Fred Smith did not have to close Federal Express again, and it did become the success that he knew it could be.

Most people do not know the story behind the story, that Fred Smith and Fed Ex failed so miserably in the first attempt, (really, just 6 orders) that even the staunchest of entrepreneurs would have given up.What if he had given up after that first embarrassing and abysmal failure?  What if?