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Does that string of letters look familiar to you? Look harder, do you see any recognizable patterns in there? Do you see the most dreaded government agency, a place to work out and a large organization often referred to as Big Blue? Got it now?

That string of letters is our economic situation: A jumbled mess that is unrecognizable, totally confusing and frustrating.

But once you spend some time trying to find understandable patterns you find bits of information than suddenly become obvious. Once you find that first bit of recognition in that string of letters (irs) you gain confidence to venture forward a bit more and you discover the ymca. Once you get to ibm you easily figure out the rest of the recognizable bits of information and suddenly that string of letters no longer is mumbo jumbo.

Finding the solutions to growing in this economy is the same exercise: Look for familiar patterns and solutions. Business has been traveling at transonic speeds these last few years and we've been tripping over signs this economic wreck was coming and ignoring sound business practices until our armored car filled with cash ran off the road into a ditch. Now what?

It's time to regroup and return to the basics so we can take the steps needed to get the money wagon back on the road and start gathering momentum once again.

Basic #1 Trust

Without trust you have no relationship with customers, employees, regulators and with the person you see in the mirror. We have shattered trust in investments, in executives, in politics and most importantly -- in the American way. It doesn't matter how many bail outs are made or stimulus packages approved, until trust is restored it will not have the desired effect. Wall St. knows it and Main St. knows it and we just need to convince Pennsylvania Ave of it.

Basic #2 Shortcuts are usually down the wrong paths

In our hurry to keep up the pace, we have taken shortcuts that have taken us down the wrong paths. Ethics are sacrificed to make more money. Universities are offered weekend MBA degrees that cheapen business schools to becoming degree mills. Microwave management means everything has to be fixed in three minutes. Our financial institutions were instructed to be an equal opportunity lender regardless of credit scores and bad loans went from a rising tide to a tsunami in a matter of months.

Doing your due diligence, investing the time to learn, and following sound policies are what will get us back in the right direction. No, we will not be able to careen down the highway at the same speed we were, but we should be able to return to a level of progress that is manageable and controllable.