Don’t put all of your eggs (careers) in one basket!

In the late 1980’s, after putting in nine and a half years at General Motors, the economy turned bad and I was suddenly confronted with either accepting an early “buy out” offer or face an indefinite layoff!

No matter how hard you work at a job or business and no matter how secure you think that job may be, in a moment, in the twinkling of the eye, your financial stream can vanish! Just ask the people at Enron or Lehman Brothers or thousands of others who have suddenly found themselves unemployed. They will tell you that no J.O.B. (just over broke) is secure. As a matter of fact, as I am writing this book, it is now estimated that the average American will have between 10-14 jobs or career changes by the time they reach age 38!

As a Manager at General Motors I was accustomed to some pretty handsome paychecks. Now I was faced with having to start all over again. Fortunately, I wasn’t happy working there anyhow and yearned to do something a little more challenging. My decision to leave there and take the buyout was two fold. First, I had already started my own business while employed at General Motors doing landscape design-build projects and had a vision to start a landscape and nursery company. This was my big chance. I would take the buyout money they offered, and then purchase land and my journey would begin. After all, I had learned somewhere along the way the no risk no reward principal. Secondly, with the doom and gloom cloud hanging over the auto industry, it really wasn’t too hard to make a decision. Some higher power was telling me it’s now or never. If I stayed on I could soon be out of a job and never have the money to start my dream business and instead would be faced with having to look for another J.O.B.

“No risk no reward!” Arthur Koestler: “If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.”

Remember you cannot advance to a better place until you leave the one you’re in! We have a choice. We can choose to take difficult situations, tough economic times or bad luck and look at it as an opportunity for change, or we can choose to do nothing or, even worse, to take on the role of the victim and if not careful go so far as to fall into a depression. Difficult economic times are often the only chance you will ever get to make the type of career change you have always wanted. Seemingly desperate times may in fact be the spring boards to a better more rewarding future. What are your dreams? Perhaps the recent loss of your job or income or both is the opportunity you have been waiting for!

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