Strategies: Eleanor Roosevelt's story inspires, especially now

— -- Listen to the news, and you'll hear words that frighten everyone in small business. For the first time in my life, economists and analysts talk not just about recession, but use that most-dreaded term, "depression" — and look to see how we pulled out of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

One of the most inspirational leaders of that time is one of my role models: first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Because this week marks the anniversary of Roosevelt's birthday (born Oct. 11, 1884) it's an appropriate time to recall some of her traits and philosophies that I find inspirational for entrepreneurs, small-businesspeople, and the average Joe and Jane facing tougher financial times.

Keep in mind that while government action is critical, our attitudes are also important. If all of us live in fear and panic mode, our economy will seize up. On the other hand, if we blithely behave as if nothing has changed, we'll be too vulnerable to the realities of the marketplace. Instead, we must recognize reality but face it with optimism and energy.

That's exactly what Eleanor Roosevelt did. She was a realist who never lost her belief in a better future and maintained an unflagging commitment to help make that future a reality. That's what we have to do, too.

Eleanor's life story reads like a novel. (In fact, her biography, written by Blanche Wiesen Cook, is a page-turner.) Eleanor came from wealth and prominence (her uncle was President Theodore Roosevelt), but her childhood was dismal. Orphaned before she was 10, her mother ridiculed her; her father was an alcoholic.

Nevertheless, young Eleanor somehow blossomed and, luckily, entered into a marriage based on mutual love to her distant-cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That marriage quickly turned humiliating and suffocating.

Yet Eleanor found strength from her own pain to have compassion and commitment to those who were in even greater pain. During her years as first lady, 1933-1945, she was the country's strongest champion of the downtrodden and voice for America's Depression-era poor. She fought for civil rights, women's rights and economic justice. She became the conscience of our society. After FDR died, she chaired the United Nations committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. No other first lady — before or since — made such a positive impact on America and the world.