“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” While many are familiar with the written words of Charles Dickens, certainly fewer are aware of Mr. Dickens’ entrepreneurial activities.

When it came to folks feeling the need for exposure to higher culture through the works of a great author, who better to satisfy this need than the great author himself? It seems that he clearly recognized the financial opportunities in seeing a need and then filling it through readings, lectures, book signings and general appearance fees. Come to think of it, this is pretty much the way it works today.

But there are quite a few other similarities as well. Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” ostensibly because he needed the money. Personal financial issues were pressing in. At the same time the industrial revolution had wreaked significant social havoc in the fabric of English society. Prisons existed to house debtors who could not meet their obligations and they were full. Unemployed people relied solely on the benevolence of charitable organizations or resorted to other, often illegal, means to satisfy their requirements for life.

Yet in this atmosphere of want and need, Dickens produced a work that has stood the test of time, one in which we can relate to even today. Recognizing that both good times and bad times come and go, Dickens gave us a blueprint to prosper in both situations. If you recall, his character Stooge championed hard work, but he also admitted to being very fortunate in some of his dealings. Indeed, his increased imbalance on the value of his talent versus the good luck in his life led directly to the miserly character that takes us along on his great awakening.

With Bob Cratchit we have a hard-working individual barely able to make ends meet in the financial world, but wealthy beyond dreams in the world of loving family and richness of spirit. The character Tiny Tim provides a dose of consistent reality by forcing us to become aware of the reality of accidents of birth, those benefits of upbringing we enjoy that somehow we think we deserve.

From massive layoffs to nationalization of industries, to just a generally bleak outlook, both the economic and social upheaval of Dickens’ time are certainly felt by all of us today. Yet the magic in “A Christmas Carol” is its ability to make even the most pessimistic of us stop for just a moment and recognize that as bad as we may think we have it, there are still a whole lot of folks in worse situations.

And it also awakens in even the most jaded of us to the notion that just maybe we have an obligation to do something for those that are less fortunate. For it is in this doing that our good fortune is truly appreciated.

Give yourself a present this year and watch George C. Scott as Scrooge and then give someone else, someone you don’t even know, a donation, a gift or a kind word. And then see if just maybe that next morning you don’t get up feeling a whole lot better about yourself and life in general. Merry Christmas and in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us everyone!”

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com