“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Peter Drucker

In Outliers, the outstanding Gladwell book about the real way we get successful, there is a terrific section at the end on societies who take more time with their work; they “have to care” immeasurably about what they do – or they simply FAIL.

Which leads me to this: Since the year is over (and all we learned in ‘08 was that smugness does not pay) I’d like to ask one question:

Does anyone care about what they do these days?

I’m not trying to bitch here -OK, maybe a little – but it’s obvious that the U.S. has sunk to a new low, money wise, and as someone who’s been running a company for almost 19 years, and has studied the economies of the last two decades while researching to write a book or three, I can promise that our economy isn’t going “UP” anytime soon. So, when I look around I see a lot of people “simply happy to have a job.” Being employed is great, but mere satisfaction with a weekly check is not the way we are going to get out of this massive mess we’re in. Offices filled with people being content to be somewhere are sucky workplaces that serve as Petri dishes that cultivate the germs required to kill off a lot of heretofore strong entities.

Face it: with people spending less and waiting to see which industries will die harshly, no fields besides banking and automobiles (and particularly not marketing) will be “rescued” anytime soon. To survive through this mess you’re going to have to have balls. And you’re going to have to be fiercely un-mediocre in a time of sameness and safety. Our businesses will have to be the ones who affirm to clients, vendors, partners and employees: I (or we) will not do any work that I don’t believe in. We will follow our instincts. We need to take a hard look at the negative ones around us who wish to do whatever it takes to, umm, get the job done, who want to use clichés, be irresponsible in their communication with others, act as if devoid of anything substantial (”no value add”), and we shall not allow them to guide us to failure. As my preamble said, it all comes down to caring-like Asians and rice fields that Gladwell ponders with precision -so I say this to you who are in your job to bide time: Be ready to become a nonunion barista in a post-Starbucks environment.

Those who think service businesses will uniformly rise above the morass over the next few years and become something hugely successful, remove your head from a place that is both dusty and dank. No miracle cure is coming-nothing is going to make any of us money unless we swiftly change the way we do business. Too many marketing professionals – particularly in the noisy, underperforming PR arena – are letting their clients and bosses tell them what they want when in fact our roles have done a complete 180 over the last several years. So how the heck can those we work for tell us how to succeed at our jobs? Could they know more than us? IS THAT REALLY POSSIBLE?

To survive – not, you’ll notice, thrive – it is about being on, truly wanting to succeed with passion and verve, but being able to do it in a way that’s not been done before. And if you have people around you who are in it to get by, you need to shove them out the door-or arrange for their exit-and/or cut them off at the knees. Yes, Virginia, that includes clients.

Finally, what is the lesson usurped from 2008? That being a wimp (yep, a lot of us were ‘woos’ character studies this year) is no way to do business, particularly when you’re hired to be a public communicator of messages that are distinctive and that you believe in! Risk-taking is everything in a society where apathetic people don’t care like they used to. So what’s a risk these days? Anything that makes you gasp when put on paper and smile to yourself when accomplished for real.

I, like most of you, wish a speedy good riddance to 2008. Here’s to Number 9, when all those who enter our lives in the workplace start to care.

I can hope.