December 28th, 2008
The year ahead
Not wanting to do a year end review like everyone else, I thought I'd look ahead. I recently received an invitation to attend a "Break your Resolutions" party in NYC in early January. It seemed like such an absurd expenditure (although most of it is being done with FF miles), that I decided to do it. What with the economy in the gutter, my 401K so potentially toxic that I haven't even looked at it since about March, the insecurity of any job, and the general gloom and doom spewing from the TV news channels, I decided to turn to the only thing that's helped me in the past - humor. And possibly stupidity.
The last time the economy was really really bad in the 1980s, I worked at a major electric utility. We had layoffs, we had management resistance to change, we were scared and cynical it felt a lot like now. What I did back then was to take over a struggling underground PROFS newsletter called "Friday's Note" and proceeded to publish a weekly broadcast of management and employee foibles and fun, risking promotions and employment because people thanked me for writing it and for the sheer joy of walking down the hallway on Friday morning to watch my colleagues laughing out loud at a green-screened terminal. We got through it. (Side note - I got through it still employed only because of friends in high places and a CEO who actually read and liked the newsletter.)
Flash forward to now. It's grim out there, and many - maybe most of us are worried about things. Each week brings news via LinkedIn updates of another friend or colleague who has changed jobs. None of us really knows if we're going to be essential to our companies in the near term. Blogs have taken the place of underground newsletters, so there are things to read when we need humor, but its still not easy to stay positive.
So next year awaits at the end of this week. Awesome - it's about time. Whether you like it or not, political change has come to the US. Change is different, its good. The economy will do what it does, most of us will try to spend less, do what we can to keep money trickling in. Me? I am working hard to remind myself that I can control only one thing - me. I'm older than the last time the economy tanked, but still worry doesn't help, so I'm just working harder to learn more stuff. I've had a line from a song called "Watusi" stuck in my head for a month or so now. It was written by good friend, songwriter, storyteller, and singer Michael Reno Harrell. and goes:
"People say time flies when you're having fun
Hey - it flies if you have fun or not
So blow out your candles and give me a call
And we'll dance till we both drop" *
So find me on the 2nd weekend in January in NYC, breaking my resolutions, then find me in Orlando on the 3rd Saturday in January where I'll be preparing to work hard at Lotusphere, and in the evenings will be breaking my resolutions and maybe dancing the Watusi.
* "Watusi", from the CD, The River , Michael Reno Harrell, 2007
Created 12/28/2008 4:20:37 PM by Bill
(Bill http://www.billbuchan.com)
Very nicely put. Stick to your guns, and keep doing what your good at.
---* Bill
[2] Rock on, Notes Goddess! Rock on!
Created 12/28/2008 4:54:02 PM by Ray Bilyk
(Ray Bilyk http://www.thepridelands.com)
We can look at the past and wallow in doubt (most we can't control), or we can learn and plan for tomorrow!
Break a few for me in NYC!
[3] The year ahead
Created 1/12/2010 2:56:39 AM by Marlen
(Marlen http://www.picktorrent.com)
Thank you so much for being so optimistic. In this time it turns out to be very difficult to turn to humour and stupidity. But you manage this even on that striking condition that you are older than the last time the economy tanked:) You are posting in such a penetrating and touching manner that I could hardly hold back my tears, the tears of happiness. Those words mean really a lot:"People say time flies when you're having fun
Hey - it flies if you have fun or not
So blow out your candles and give me a call
And we'll dance till we both drop"...
