So, during the whole mania surrounding the dotcom boom, I was more of a participant in the mania, than I was an investor, but it still gave me a nose bleed. I worked for a high rolling dotcom company that was burning cash with a flame thrower. It was an incredible time to be a part of the economy. Then, like everyone else, after the pizza parties and late night workfest lunacy died down I looked around and realized it couldn't last forever. That was the year 2000. And so the decline began. Since then, along with everyone else, I've wised up.

And I think this year marks the starting-over point. The Nasdaq is back where it was before the insanity hit. The economy, when analyzed by experts instead of politicians, shows signs of strength, measured improvement and strong growth potential. I think it's time to get back into the market, return to the business practices that caused the steady growth of the years preceding the bubble, and it's time to get on with life.

Get back in the stock market, re-invest in your business, look for opportunities to be frugal, but aggresive. Take this chance to pick up where we left off in 1998 and excel. Look for ways to leverage the tremendous technologicial advances of the last 5 years. Dedicate yourself to doing something remarkable, something that hasn't been done before. Take pride in how you do business, set your sights insanely high. Ignore naysayers, hire optimists, stay competitively paranoid, look for great ideas, then execute on them.

Sure, the future looks different than the past. It's scary, like all unknowns are, but what are your options? Cower and wait for someone else to jump off the high-dive and see that they survive? Invent your own high-dive and be the first to jump off it. Be amazing, surprise your customers, do something great.