Have you always followed your dreams? Did you dare to take the path less traveled?
Most of us have taken the safe path and stayed with the crowd. That is not a bad thing. There is safety in numbers. Well,… sort of.
The world has changed and for some that safe path no longer exists. That safely traveled path has come to an abrupt end. What do they do? For some it might be a matter of moving to the next or nearby safe path and finding a place there; again moving with the crowd.
For others there is no safe path. For some there may be no path at all. What do they do? Where do they turn?
For many years people turned to Corporate America to supply the safe jobs; jobs that would be there day after day, year after year until it was time to retire and then they would supply good safe retirement plans and pensions. Those jobs are not so safe anymore. The Corporations are too tied to their quarterly earnings; to keeping their stockholders happy. The stockholders are strongly committed to continuous and continuing profits and rising profit margins. Business thinking today is more short term than long term. Oh yes, I know, there are some exceptions to that. But they are becoming fewer and fewer.
Safety, for what it’s worth, may be in the smaller, privately held or employee held companies or boutique shops. But even these shops will not fit all people. So…what will they do?
Are you one of those people; the ones who don’t seem to fit in. Maybe when you were let go you experienced a moment of extreme euphoria, as if you had been released from prison. Oh, yes, your next thought may have been: “What comes next?” But for one bright shiny moment you felt free, gloriously, giddily free. How could that be? Maybe if you are still unemployed you have found that answer. Could it be that you were not meant to travel with the crowd? Could it be you really don’t fit in with the pack?
What were those dreams you had? What were those aspirations? Are they achievable today? Would they be achievable with some small adjustments?
Perhaps the work you were doing was what you enjoyed. Maybe the work gave you purpose and a sense of achievement. If that is the case and working in Corporate America is no longer viable and the smaller private enterprises are also out, you might consider starting your own business. Have you looked into what it would take? How it would be financed. Do you have what it takes to work on your own or head up a new enterprise? Could you do it? Would you do it?
Maybe all the doors to what you were doing are closed. Frankly the idea of doing what you did all your professional life is giving you nightmares. Can you turn to your earlier dreams for an answer? Can you dare to start over? Can you dare to forge your own path? Are you free and do you have the courage and ability to be the authentic you? Do you have the courage to succeed on your own terms? You now have the freedom to choose, perhaps for the first time in your life. It’s scary. No doubt. There is the chance that things will not work out. But positive attitude and a belief that the Universe will provide as long as you do your part may get you through.
It’s a thought. Can you do it? Will you do it?
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Success
What constitutes success? Is it society’s standards or an individual’s own assessment of his life? Can one be considered successful if he experiences success in one area of his life, but finds the rest of his life a shambles?
Can success be measured externally or is it an internal measurement? Who has lived the more successful life?
Is it the man who has pulled himself out of poverty by the scratching of his own fingers, or just by the dint of hard work and smart decisions, but who has not taken the time to make friends, other than those who could advance his fortune? Or is it the man who has taken time along the way to appreciate the people around him and to build deep relationships with those who have crossed his path or at least dealt with them fairly and honestly while they were in his life?
Is it more successful to reach the end of one’s life surrounded by people , hundreds, even thousands of people, none of whom you know well or for that matter really know anything about you? Or is it better to reach the end of your life surrounded by just a few friends, all of whom know you well, who know something of your dreams and aspirations and who have laughed and cried with you?
Is the man who has achieved all of his life, who at the end is still looking around for more worlds to conquer who is the more successful? Or is the man who looks back on his life and realizes he had a wonderful family and friends and that his life was rich with laughter and tears and is content to say, “I had a good life”?
Who is more successful, the man who was able to control events in his life so that he was never surprised and was always prepared for whatever might happen? Or is it the man who rolled with the punches? Who felt that life was an adventure to be experienced as it came, good or ill?
Who is the more successful, the man who has no humor about himself but laughs at the foibles of others, or the man that realizes life is fun and funny and laughs most often at himself and never at, but with others?
What is success at the end of life? Is it the man who rails against his fate which was always to pass from this earth, or is it the man who can sigh with contentment and say “I did good”?
As you stand in line at the grocery store, who is more successful, the man whose face is plastered over all the magazines and newspapers or the man standing next to you?
Can success be measured externally or is it an internal measurement? Who has lived the more successful life?
Is it the man who has pulled himself out of poverty by the scratching of his own fingers, or just by the dint of hard work and smart decisions, but who has not taken the time to make friends, other than those who could advance his fortune? Or is it the man who has taken time along the way to appreciate the people around him and to build deep relationships with those who have crossed his path or at least dealt with them fairly and honestly while they were in his life?
Is it more successful to reach the end of one’s life surrounded by people , hundreds, even thousands of people, none of whom you know well or for that matter really know anything about you? Or is it better to reach the end of your life surrounded by just a few friends, all of whom know you well, who know something of your dreams and aspirations and who have laughed and cried with you?
Is the man who has achieved all of his life, who at the end is still looking around for more worlds to conquer who is the more successful? Or is the man who looks back on his life and realizes he had a wonderful family and friends and that his life was rich with laughter and tears and is content to say, “I had a good life”?
Who is more successful, the man who was able to control events in his life so that he was never surprised and was always prepared for whatever might happen? Or is it the man who rolled with the punches? Who felt that life was an adventure to be experienced as it came, good or ill?
Who is the more successful, the man who has no humor about himself but laughs at the foibles of others, or the man that realizes life is fun and funny and laughs most often at himself and never at, but with others?
What is success at the end of life? Is it the man who rails against his fate which was always to pass from this earth, or is it the man who can sigh with contentment and say “I did good”?
As you stand in line at the grocery store, who is more successful, the man whose face is plastered over all the magazines and newspapers or the man standing next to you?
Friday, May 7, 2010
Ingenuity and Creativity
I was just reading an article provided by the Wall Street Journal to Yahoo online. It said that fully 20% of the men between the ages of 25 and 54 are not working. It doesn’t address the employment of those over 54 which we might expect to be worse. The article goes on to quote the President’s economic advisor as saying that when the economy has fully recovered about five years from now the improvement will be that one 1 in 6 men will be out of work. Doesn’t feel like it will be that much of an improvement does it?
It does say that many of the jobs that have gone away, will never return. Many of them production line work or construction, but office workers are being affected too.
We can’t expect the government to help us out. They don’t really know how to cope with this state of affairs either. The only solutions they seem to come up with are only digging the hole deeper. The bailouts we are funding may be creating a few jobs, but not in the number we need. Government created jobs for the unemployed doesn’t really make sense either. That’s the government creating jobs that the taxpayer is funding. So those new jobs the government creates are being paid for by the people who are being employed in those jobs, with considerable additional support by the already overburdened taxpayer. We have to stop the madness.
We have gotten use to being taken care of. We have allowed our minds and imaginations to go soft , thinking that we will be taken care of in times of trouble. In times of trouble we are the ones we need to turn to. Government was designed to govern. Too make laws that protect us and keep the country from sinking into anarchy. The government was not meant to be our caretaker, nor should we expect or want it to me.
We need to do what we have been best at, applying our ingenuity and creativity to solving the problem. We the people, not the U.S. government need to do this. We are the most affected. The government pays lip service to the problem but then goes blithely on and exacerbates it by continuing to spend money we don’t have.
Nor is Corporate America the answer. Public companies do not have very much loyalty to their employees, if any. Their loyalties are to their stockholders. The stockholders attention is on short-term result, the bottom line and ROI. So when those quarterly and annual reports come out and ROI is not good, management looks around to see where it can save money. Let’s see, are the top executives going to vote to slash their exorbitant salaries and bonuses? Not likely. Are they going to decrease the size of upper management, possibly, though not likely. Why would they vote themselves out of a job? Guess where they are going to turn to next? Hello! The middle and lower echelons of the work force have come into their sights. Surprise! Oh, don’t worry. The work is not going away. There are just going to be fewer people doing it. A few of those jobs may come back when the bottom line picks up. Maybe, but probably not.
So it now falls upon the ones who have been most affected to ferret out the solution to this problem. The world has changed. It has moved on. We can no longer expect the old ways to work. We cannot expect to be taken care of.
Will we rise to this challenge? There is no choice. We have to. When we started this country we made do with what we had and in doing so forged a better more prosperous life. We invented and developed ways that made our lives easier and more efficient. We developed industries that put people to work, work in which they could take pride. We need to do it again.
Rhetoric aside, if we are to survive and thrive we must do it again.
It does say that many of the jobs that have gone away, will never return. Many of them production line work or construction, but office workers are being affected too.
We can’t expect the government to help us out. They don’t really know how to cope with this state of affairs either. The only solutions they seem to come up with are only digging the hole deeper. The bailouts we are funding may be creating a few jobs, but not in the number we need. Government created jobs for the unemployed doesn’t really make sense either. That’s the government creating jobs that the taxpayer is funding. So those new jobs the government creates are being paid for by the people who are being employed in those jobs, with considerable additional support by the already overburdened taxpayer. We have to stop the madness.
We have gotten use to being taken care of. We have allowed our minds and imaginations to go soft , thinking that we will be taken care of in times of trouble. In times of trouble we are the ones we need to turn to. Government was designed to govern. Too make laws that protect us and keep the country from sinking into anarchy. The government was not meant to be our caretaker, nor should we expect or want it to me.
We need to do what we have been best at, applying our ingenuity and creativity to solving the problem. We the people, not the U.S. government need to do this. We are the most affected. The government pays lip service to the problem but then goes blithely on and exacerbates it by continuing to spend money we don’t have.
Nor is Corporate America the answer. Public companies do not have very much loyalty to their employees, if any. Their loyalties are to their stockholders. The stockholders attention is on short-term result, the bottom line and ROI. So when those quarterly and annual reports come out and ROI is not good, management looks around to see where it can save money. Let’s see, are the top executives going to vote to slash their exorbitant salaries and bonuses? Not likely. Are they going to decrease the size of upper management, possibly, though not likely. Why would they vote themselves out of a job? Guess where they are going to turn to next? Hello! The middle and lower echelons of the work force have come into their sights. Surprise! Oh, don’t worry. The work is not going away. There are just going to be fewer people doing it. A few of those jobs may come back when the bottom line picks up. Maybe, but probably not.
So it now falls upon the ones who have been most affected to ferret out the solution to this problem. The world has changed. It has moved on. We can no longer expect the old ways to work. We cannot expect to be taken care of.
Will we rise to this challenge? There is no choice. We have to. When we started this country we made do with what we had and in doing so forged a better more prosperous life. We invented and developed ways that made our lives easier and more efficient. We developed industries that put people to work, work in which they could take pride. We need to do it again.
Rhetoric aside, if we are to survive and thrive we must do it again.
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