Business Network International’s Ivan Misner has an interesting outlook on the recession in which we currently find ourselves.  He’s not participating.

Misner cribbed the idea from a real estate agent who was still doing well in a bad Connecticut housing market.  When Misner asked the man how we was managing to do so well, the guy pulled a little piece of paper out of his wallet.  It said, simply, “I absolutely refuse to participate in a recession!”

Is that the trick to prospering when so many around us are struggling?  Misner seems to think so.  

So did the company that sent a handwritten letter to News from the Herd.  An exhibition company advised them that:

…we’re determined to avoid all the superfluous pessimistic noise, in favour of a mindset of opportunity, opportunism and confidence. Want to join us?

In other words, they refuse to participate in a recession, too.

There are a few good reasons to think that a dash of optimism and a healthy dose of positivity might be what it takes to avoid recessionary agony.  Herd reminds us that past predictions of massive economic downturns overstated risks by a considerable margin.  At the dawn of the go-go 90s, some were cautioning others about an impending collapse of the entire economic order.  It didn’t happen.  Not even close.  Those who kept on smiling and working kept on earning and growing.

Additionally, there is reason to believe that aspects of the current economic “crisis” have been exaggerated and amplified by both the traditional and new media.  Bad news always gets headlines and there’s no shortage of recession coverage these days.  This time around, the coverage is particularly fast and intense.

The Daily Beast’s Cheat Sheet summed up a David Carr article from the New York Times that makes a credible argument in that vein:

Every modern recession includes a media séance about how horrible things are and how much worse they will be,” David Carr writes in today’s New York Times, “but there have never been so many ways for the fear to leak in. The same digital dynamics that drove the irrational exuberance—and marketed the loans to help it happen—are now driving the downside in unprecedented ways.” In any given morning, Carr braves televisions in taxi cabs and elevators, news tickers in Times Square, email alerts, online advertisements, and instant messages that all feed the fear. “This recession got deeper faster because we knew more bad stuff quickly…”

So, if we’re really dealing with exaggeration and amplification instead of an economic bogeyman, it makes sense to opt out of the recession.  Maybe Misner’s idea of sitting this one out is what we should all be doing.

Wait one minute, though…  There’s more to opting out of an economic crisis than simply deciding that it doesn’t exist.  The right attitude might carry you part of the way, but that needs to be combined with a real plan to make things work for the best.  That real estate agent with a piece of scrap paper wasn’t just expressing his plan to engage in the willing suspension of disbelief.  He was also reminding himself to do what’s necessary to duck the recessions haymakers.

Misner’s plan?  To continue building referral business.  Obviously, that just happens to be the core of his business at BNI.  He writes, “While you cannot control the economy or your competition, you can control your response to the economy. Referrals can keep your business alive and well during an economic downturn.”

You might come up with a different plan.  The trick to opting out of the recession is to have a strategy and to stick to it.  If you want to refuse to participate in the recession, it’s up to you to come up with a plan to do so.  That might be a little tougher than wishing bad economic news away, but it’s also sure to be more effective.