A lot has happened since my last blog post.* When I last posted an article in early September, John McCain was leading in the polls and the Dow Jones was 3,000 points higher than it is today.
Oh, and the US lost a ton of jobs.* They originally reported a loss of 159,000 job losses in September, the worst in five years.* Turned out that they were off (by a lot).* Instead, there was a loss of 403,000 jobs in September, followed by 320,000 job losses in October.* November topped them all: 533,000 jobs were lost, the worst in 34 years (which also brings the total to 1.256 million over the last three months alone).
They say that one sad story is tragic, but a thousand of them is a statistic.* It’s very easy to forget that every single job loss has a person, a story, a life that was attached to that job, and when we’re talking about numbers this big, it’s simply overwhelming.
Which brings me to why I’m writing this post after such a long hiatus.* During the last recession in the early 2000’s, I was one of those statistics.* It was my first job after being done with school.* Ever since grade school, I was told to get good grades so I worked hard at it.* In college, I was told that engineers would always be in demand so I worked hard in that major.* When I worked for an internet company, I was told to work hard and I would get rewarded in stock options.* The company went bankrupt, my stock options were worthless and I was out of a job.* I remember telling myself, “It wasn’t supposed to end this way.* I did what I was told.* I was faithful and worked hard but I have nothing to show for it.”* I was angry and unemployed.
Fast forward to the present.* I had to take a break with my blog to write a proposal for the company I work for today.* While I was writing that proposal, I got news of winning a previous proposal I wrote (I mentioned it in my last post).* So what about that proposal that made me take a break from blogging?* I just found out I won that too.
What changed?* Getting laid off a few years ago taught me the hard lesson that I can’t let others think for me - I need to think for myself.* I also learned that the Puritanical devotion of working hard is not nearly as valuable as working smart.
I’ve always wanted to get back to blogging, but the recent economic turn has really inspired me to pick it up again.* I was in the middle of redesigning the blog layout for a relaunch, but I’m not sure I can wait that long.* There’s chock full of stuff I want to write about!* I started this blog as an outlet for myself to help people do the right things for pursuing their goals and dreams.* It seems like a good time for me to blog about it again.
image credits: striatic
</img>
</img> </img> </img> </img> </img>