I remember the day I lost my job at the end of 1999. As if it were yesterday. I had been given the boot.
Jump!
Our department had obviously become 'expendable.' Large numbers of people got the bullet that same day, but I was the only one with a Cheshire cat grin on my face. My colleagues were sure I had lost my marbles. From their perspective they were right.
I felt liberated!
I left the office and was heading for the parking lot together with my next-cubicle colleague, who concluded, "You must be insane!" This after I shared with him that I wasn't the least bit worried about 'unemployment', and that I had plunked down $15,000 for a series of seminars by a self-help guru. "You're positively crazy," he confirmed his assessment of the situation. We arrived at his car, exchanged farewells. His car was a brand-new German import. Interesting choice, I said to myself, invest in a car or invest in your Self. It seemed a no-brainer. On the drive home, in my own old car, I felt an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders. "I'VE JUMPED - I'M FREE!"
Of course, my other voice wanted to be heard, too. "Beat, you delusional clown, what are you going to DO now?!"
Getting fired was the proverbial kick in the ass I had secretly been fantasizing about. Now that it happened, it changed my life. It was the last day I have ever worked for "a boss" again. I've been "my own boss" - self-employed, unemployable - for almost 11 years now.
For millions of people all over the world, the recession has been a curse. For a relative few, it has been energizing - a catalyst for change. With hindsight they all agree, had they not been pushed, they would never have jumped, would never have made the leap.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I know a few people who have had similar experiences, it can be a liberation for some! I like the way you say you're self-employed and unemployable now :)!
Hi Beat -
Loved this post. I got fired, along with the rest of the TV hosts on Wisdom Television, a week after the owner of the cable network died. His family canceled everyone – one day notice – and I had 5 authors in Chicago ready to go on TV the next day.
I was devestated. I had been on every day for over 5 years nationwide.
But, if that had not happened, I would not have become a blogger – which is the most fun I have ever had – and met wonderful friends like you.
And I didn't have to read five books a week to do my show.
No matter what heartbreak you have – somehow it works out in your favor.
The trick is to stay in the game of life. Like you did.
I started my 'exit plan' 4 years ago by starting my own on-line business. Working weekends and evenings while still working full-time was hard work but I loved it…I knew it was my way out.
18 months ago, I took the plunge. No more regular corporate monthly check for me…now every day is a bit of a gamble. Some days I make no money – other days $1,000's…and I wouldn't swap it for anything.
A little while after i gave up the corporate world I was offered a 3 month contract at $1500 a day. 90K for 3 months work. I turned it down.
Andrew
I know what you mean and how you feel Beat. I have that t-shirt also. Mine is a little different, but i won't go into that.
It does remind me though when when door closes there is always a better door that opens. We just have to look through the clouds sometimes, so we can see that new door. never under estimate the power of change when we are thrown right in the middle of it.
Debbie
Becoming self employed still remains an attitude that is great for some, appalling for others. As the economy would collapse if everyone became self employed I think there also needs to be a way of helping employees have more autonomy and feeling of value.
David, couldn't agree more when it comes to autonomy and feeling of value – different strokes for different folks. It is never less than amazing, the things people will do, employed or self-employed.
Debbie, the only constant is change, yet lots of people are afraid to step through the doors of change – resisting it, fighting it, even blowing themselves (and others) up in the process, in the belief they can return the world back to what is was yesterday (whatever that means). For them doors spell unspeakable fear. There's a beautiful passage in Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist' which explains that for many people the only reason for not leaving the oasis is the fear of not returning.
Hats off to you! You didn't need a kick in the butt, you had the whereabouts and brains to take the leap on your own terms. With hindsight it's by far the best way – prepare thy parachute before you need it! I grossly underestimated what it meant to fly on my own wings – probably as any bird would, after a life inside a cage, golden maybe, but a cage nevertheless.
Corinne, I know what you mean, yet not sure there is a trick (or a secret) – even though it sure appears that way! For most of my life I didn't cook. Thought it was difficult and there was a trick to good cooking. The one day, our of sheer necessity, I began to cook for me and my son. Today I hear people telling me how fab a cook I am – there's never been a trick and I don't know of any. So, maybe the true trick is to see there are no tricks involved, just choice :-]
It's as funny as it is real, and sad, to see how in a large group of employees, few embrace the opportunity to do something different in life and with their lives, and many fear the unfamiliar. The latter probably remain employable forever :-)
I have been a contractor in Emergency Medicine for about 30 years. I love working for me. It isn't for everyone. The lessons can be tough. You have to be ready and you were Beat. Think if that had happened 1,2 or 5 years before. Different ending maybe. It worked though and I am glad you were ready.
Bruce, I agree fully. It's not for everyone, and the timing must be right, too. There are people who see work as an end in itself, or the glass as half empty, or they rate comfort in the present highly. They are unlikely to have whatever it takes. Then there are those who, like the frog in the lesser known version of the fairy tale, who react to being kissed by the princess, with “I'm not ready!” :-)
I saw so many people around me getting made redundant (I had 'survived' about 4 rounds of redundancy), I thought I must have a plan 'b'. It's not all been “plain sailing” though!
Andrew
Andrew, being an entrepreneur is definitively *not* plain sailing – I'm in an excellent position to know! References to having jumped or taken the plunge, or to having been saved, liberated, or set free are more often than not mistaken to mean some goal has been achieved and things are easy. The exact opposite is true! Jumping – or whatever – is but a first step, a new beginning, a new adventure maybe. It's never an end in itself. It reminds me of, “Ships are safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are built for.” Sailing – rough seas – is the hard part. Only ships 'suffering' in the safety of harbor will delude themselves into thinking ships on the outside have it made or have it easy. – Beat
True Bruce. :)
I've also been an employee managing few people on a retail store and I thought with all those downtimes in the afternoon on a day to day basis, I should be doing something that will yield me more results, planning and strategizing things on my own. That's also when it came a time where I looked for the market in my hobby and sport which is dragonboating. When I started to look around and determine the problem, I realized that I just need to setup my own online business and start delivering dragonboat products to my team mates and also teams around Australia which made my first success of letting go of being an employee and finally making money to work for me.
It felt great too that being independent of your own creative thoughts, you can finally make money more than you do when you used to have a 9 to 5 job. Plus, you can have better ways to find people to work for your business this time to leverage and automate all the work to finally plunge into little retirements like going out for holidays, traveling, etc.
It's great that you still had the positive spirit despite of losing the job thinking that being your own boss is the greatest product of freedom. :)
Tyrone
Tyrone, “being your own boss is the greatest product of freedom” – says it perfectly! I strongly felt at the time, as I do now, that life without personal growth is more akin to death than to life. Life in a cubicle felt increasingly like a slow death. So doing my own thing, being my own boss, felt like the only reasonable thing to do – regardless of outcome (regardless of whether it makes you rich or not). With hindsight I'm happy to have made that decision, even though at the level of execution, I'd do about a million things different now :-)
- Beat
Unemployment gives us an opportunity to start a business which might turn out to be a better solution.
Beat,
You've touched on an excellent topic.
I've heard the following quote:
“There are 9 times more millionaires made during a recession” – I decided that I was going to be the next millionaire!
Krizia
Way to go! Let's see who gets there first … lol … on a (more) serious note, it's not the million that's important, but the person you become on the way to becoming a millionaire. Either way, enjoy the journey :-)
Hi Beat,
Your words capture the sentiments for so many. So much of what we do career wise is a function of expectations of us from parents — and often without the ability to research what is best for us when we start on a career. Your feeling of slowly dying in a job is exactly how I felt. There are more options out there if we take the time to look and nothing has to be forever.
Fantastic site. thanks
Beat I love that you choose to invest in yourself or a new car! Investing in yourself certainly paid off big time for you. During hard times, (like getting the sack) it's important to know that things work out for the better if we keep a great attitude and take control.. You did that! yea
Lance, thanks for your feedback! Blogging about my job loss experience – and the reaction people have had to it – shows the idiom “All roads lead to Rome” remains as true today as it literally was in the days of the Roman Empire. The way people react to job loss are as varied as the people who are losing their job. The fact that “there are more options out there,” as you put it, can awaken entrepreneurship in people, or it can awaken fear – either of which is alright. As you say, “nothing has to be forever.”
- Beat
Michelle, it is a universal truth, “things work out for the better if we keep a great attitude and take control” – and a vastly underrated universal truth at that! Many seem to mostly want OTHERS to “keep a great attitude and take control” (then declare themselves surprised when things do not work out). Even fans of Think & Grow Rich often forget the one thing Napoleon Hill put above all others, on top of the list of the things that make people rich: a positive mental attitude.
- Beat
Beat, you're so right. Sometimes the best motivation comes from a desperate situation. Congratulations on 11 great years of working for yourself!
Faith and trust and a quiet determination. That's what I hear in what you've shared. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Hanging around with you is so refreshing :D
Faith and trust and a quiet determination, like an arrow shot by an archer you trust … versus jumping on every other passing dog as another opportunity, like a flea. Or as in “I'm not delusional. I'm an entrepreneur.” – quoting Hugh McLeod :-)
Beat,
You're right. I would never have left my job if I hadn't been laid off. I had a hard time adjusting at first, mainly because I was so damn tired from 50-60 hour weeks as a single mom of a 7 year-old. After I caught up with rest, I started assessing what I was going to do with my time.
I had 5 months from the time of the notice to the last day I worked in 2003, and I went on a ton of interviews but didn't land a job. I had 20 years of experience in wet chemistry, a dying discipline, and was making too much money to get a more entry-level job. They either didn't want to pay me that little because I might leave, or they didn't want to invest in training me because they could hire a new graduate already trained for peanuts. Fortunately, I had a very generous separation package that gave us a huge cushion.
I decided it might be time to put my experience to work for the next generation, and went into math/science tutoring. The terrible job market made me look at other areas I never thought about before. I love working with teens and helping them learn things they need help with. My work experience allows me to teach them in a totally different mindset than a teacher would.
I worked for a tutoring company for 3 years until she closed to work with her husband in his business, then went into business for myself. I like being my own boss. I work for Papa John's part time, but look forward to when I won't need that extra money. I'm paying off debts and want to get that done sooner rather than later. I'm reminded of why I went to college and why I like being my own boss! I mostly like knowing I can quit if I have to, that I don't have to put up with it forever if it gets intolerable. I'm a driver, so when things are crazy, I'm out of the store on deliveries anyway, so it's okay.
This post is a good lesson to have a plan B waiting in the wings and not just any plan B, a better plan B than plan A was.
Sherri, thanks for sharing. Your story is representative for many, and quite possibly for increasingly many during these times of hardest economic conditions in 80 years and future shock happening all around us. It reminds me that our responsibility is our ability to respond, which is not always easy. It's true for everybody, it's twice or thrice as true for a single mom with kid[s]. Hats off to you! PS. On a lighter note, Dylan is quoted as having said, we must always be prepared, but we never know for what :-]
Thank you, Beat.
This keeps my hopes up (as well as my commitment) for my own business.
I haven’t yet escaped the 40 per week grind, but I’ve managed to find a job that I enjoy doing, and make time to work on my passion.
I’ve learned that investing in the Self is eternally rewarding even if doesn’t immediately give you exactly the results you are hoping for.
Hmmmm…. a nice car or a chance to train with geniuses in the field of personal development… it’s a no brainer for me as well (I drove a beat up mini van for about 6 years… I could never find the money to get a different car, but I always seem to be able to come up with the funding for new products on meditation/psychology/NLP/energy-work/hypnosis/etc.)
Freedom is a wonderful thing!
keep smiling,
Benjamin