Business owners are generally optimists. That's why they're business owners. They have hope for a better future. And, that optimism many times is naive and simple. It can keep business owners continually walking the tight rope sitting atop an elephant.

They spend what they make. They operate on thin margins. They assume the good times will continue indefinitely. And when they don't - when the market shifts, when a major customer leaves, when an economic downturn hits - they feel the hurt. But they act as if it was out of their control.

The issue isn't that winter came. Winter always comes. The issue is that they didn't prepare for it.