How to see a Crisis – Opportunity or Danger?
Here we are, two-plus years from the epicenter of the financial crisis. September 2008 AIG and Lehman Brothers melted down within a few weeks. It began a run on the financial system that lasted for easily a year and a half, and is still felt today. I was thinking about that week when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008. TMG Financial Services was just starting to gain critical mass towards our business plan of acquiring portfolios from credit unions. We had thoughts on permanent funding for the portfolios and had put in place some temporary funding, but nothing substantive had come together. With the financial crisis, we realized our sources of funding weren’t coming from the usual suspects. On that Tuesday, we met as a management team to figure out what to do. Looking back, it really wasn’t a pleasant meeting. It was mostly dark humor and grim comments about what had happened to the financial industry and where we, as a start-up among giants, would end up. I imagine more