Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a chance to talk to a number of business owners in the area.

I talked to mechanics, mortgage brokers and owners of retailer stores. There is a tremendous difference between all of these businesses.

What struck me, though, were the similarities among these folks in their approach to business and their general state of mind.

Although I did ask them what they were hearing from customers and colleagues, I never asked them flatly if they were worried about the economy. Instead, I just tried to gather what I could from their demeanor during our visits.

I consider myself a fairly good judge of people and what’s going on with them while we talk. During the course of a conversation, it’s not that hard to spot people with agendas, people who are self-promoters, people who are on top of it or people who are in crisis mode.

What I picked up from these folks was a relative sense of calm. They were easy to reach, talkative and joking. Who would have guessed?

The question is: what does this say, if anything, about our economy? Is it turning around? Did someone, somewhere, pull the sword from the stone to bring an end to all of this? Well … no.

What it does say, however, is that smart business minds who are running solid businesses based on fundamental business values aren’t looking for a bridge to jump off of. They have a way to make their corner of the economy work. Are they watching the economy? You bet. Are they scared? Not really.

I got the sense from talking to these folks that the sucker punch of our economic collapse has already been delivered, that sting is fading and the regrouping is underway to better weather the punches yet to come. Is it just them?

While writing this, I decided to take a gander at the New York Times Business section online. I just wanted to see if it boasted the same gory, NC-17 collection of headlines it was for while (I stopped looking on a regular basis a while ago just for my own sanity) or if it reflected in any way what I was picking up from my conversations with local business owners.

Here were the six headlines I could see on the first screen: “Small Carmakers benefit from Detroit’s Woes,” “As the Boston Globe Struggled, Confusion Prevailed,” “Paramount bets its summer largely on one Producer,” “Paper’s report on killing was seen only online,” “Investors bet on payment via cell phone,” and “At meetings, it’s mind your Blackberry or mind your manners.”

All but the Boston Globe story and the Blackberry story seemed to focus on opportunities or new ways of doing business. These were stories about businesses living to explore new opportunities, not their obituaries. The Globe story doesn’t say anything gloomy about our economy as a whole and the Blackberry story … anytime we can make room for another discussion about cell phone etiquette probably means Chicken Little is taking the day off.

I went through the same exercise with Business Week Forbes and a few others. It’s not all good news, but it’s not all dreadful either. In fact, the invigorating, idea-inspiring pieces seem to outnumber the accounts of failure.

My point is that business minded people are finding a way to survive. You can read about it nationally or talk to real folks about it right here. That’s good news for all of us.

Business