Editorial

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely a survivor of the Great Covid-19 Pandemic…both personally as well as business-wise. I’m not saying this disease is in the rearview mirror, hardly. I am, however, a believer that the worst is behind America, with steady though slow improvement in the number of infections and deaths defining the future of this virus.

Government efforts, in combination with the pharmaceutical industry and plain old common sense have brought the country and its dependent economy to a point where many experts now believe that Covid has joined the ranks of the common flu. In addition, a pill from Pfizer called Paxlovid has been successfully tested and found vastly affective in reducing the severity of the disease if you’re unlucky enough to catch it.

The recent IAAPA convention and trade show in Orlando was that expected “lean but mean” event everyone expected, largely due to Covid travel problems. But, like this spring’s Amusement Expo in Las Vegas, it was defined by determined game buyers whose game centers weathered the pandemic and in many cases, did pretty darn well in the cash can once again. That so important “attitude” was evident in the less-crowded exhibit hall…that passion that drives the more successful business people to the front of the pack.

Newly-minted issues like the supply line holdup and inflation call up that tired phrase “no pain, no gain.” Like Covid, such problems tend to weed out things like unnecessary old machines from marginal locations and (sorry to say) employees whose heads are caught in another century. But for business owners whose eyes are fixed on that bottom line, while still finding time and grit to take a risk and grab opportunity with both hands, that gutsy spirit precedes better rewards.

President Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech back in 1910 in which the fabled risk-taker said: “Credit belongs to the man actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” Couldn’t say it better myself.