Words and numbers are funny things. You can take the same numbers and combine them with certain words and it will make them sound like the end of the world is nigh. Or you can make those same numbers sound like good news.

Take for instance, this quote from MediaPost that I read this week:

I don't know about you, but I know businesses that would be thrilled with 10% growth year over year. I know employees who would be ecstatic with a 10% pay increase each year.

But if you simply read that quote and nothing more, you would have jumped to a very different conclusion.

Lest you think I'm dense, I definitely get the point about the rapid slowing of growth. And I think the article itself was very good and quite valuable in breaking down the numbers and including other sources forecasting year-over-year sales growth. I am merely remarking on what the quoted industry source said.

My point is this: keep using phrases like "falling off a cliff" to describe 10% sales growth, and negative sales growth will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We'll convince consumers and small businesses and corporations that things are so bad, they should just stop spending altogether.

Why? Because everyone else has stopped spending! ("Haven't you heard?")

If we want sales to bounce back, we've got to start talking about the economy a little more from the glass half full perspective. Not that anyone should ignore reality. But let's not shade reality to such a negative extent that we become a nation of losers -- talking ourselves into low sales because of all the bad news we're constantly bombarded with provokes us to hide our money under the mattress, instead of living our lives and running our businesses.

That's this business owner's perception.