I trust you had a great break and recharged the batteries, ready to face the extraordinary challenges of 2009.  We had a couple of weeks in Hawaii, and no, we didn't see the new President or the new Prime Minister.  We didn't see much surf either, but it is a fabulous place - 26 degrees in the middle of their winter. 

We really enjoyed the culture.  Their state motto is "the spirit of aloha", and they are living the mission.  Of course the island faces lots of challenges with tourism numbers well down, but underlying that is a real sense of privilege and good fortune at living in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Even better, you get the sense that the locals are happy to share that paradise, and the community itself is as diverse as the tourists.

But enough of "what I did during my holiday".  I want to tell you about a little company that we came across as we ambled around the streets of Lahaina in Maui.  The Red Dirt Shirt Company sells t-shirts, and as you can imagine, they compete in a very crowded market.  But these ones are very distinctive: in 1992, the company was on the brink of ruin.  Flooding brought by Hurricane Iniki left them with messy cases of blank white t-shirts, partially stained with Kauai's famous red dirt.  The island is made up of rusted volcano rock with lots of iron oxide in it, turned into dirt over millions of years.  This stuff causes a very stubborn stain, and the owner thought the inventory was a complete loss and his business was finished.

A friend suggested that they should simply finish the job: completely dye the shirts with red dirt and call them dirt shirts. The owner, whether through desperation or simply because he was always up for something different, thought it was a great idea.  Both his wife and his business partner thought he was crazy, but they went ahead, using their artistic skills to create designs that complemented the medium.

They launched in 1994 and were amazed: locals mobbed the sales booth, and they quickly ran out.  It then spread to the tourist market, and today the red dirt shirts can be seen on all sorts of bodies in Hawaii and around the world, including (ahem) Auckland.

The one that caught my eye had a list of "red dirt rules" on the back. Some of them were a bit cheesy, but there were a couple that I really liked:

• never judge a day by the weather
• the best things in life aren't things
• there's always another wave

Here's the thing: adversity generates innovation.  In these jaw-dropping days, it's important to remember that while something is ending, something else is beginning.  The real risk is that we are too timid to see it, too intimidated by the pace and depth of the changes that are happening.  For example, the Reserve Bank of England has dropped its interest rate to the lowest level since it was created over 450 years ago.  That's right up there on the scale of unprecedented.  You could look at that and say that it's because our problems are unprecedented.  Or you could look at it and congratulate the Bank for not being bound by what they've always done, and being prepared to do something radical (like soak your t-shirts in dirt).

There is a solution.  You just haven't found it yet. If you follow the example of the owner of the Red Dirt Shirt Company, you'll

• look at every idea, from the obvious to the outrageous
• think about how adversity can be turned to advantage
• use your skills in a new direction
• never give up the belief that there's a way through
• back yourself

Aloha

Dr Mike Ashby
22 January 2009