Different Direction Drivers

Over the last few years, a number of my friends have lost their jobs. At one time, in a land far far away they lived with the perception that job security actually existed. It’s a sad reality that a good job, considered once untouchable, can very quickly  become a very low and heartbreaking point in someone’s life. I have become a little immune to all the unemployment statistics that are tossed around and then quickly forgotten before the next news headline. When I hear facts and numbers, I think more about the effect of real people with real lives. We’ve all heard things like, ‘Calgary has the highest unemployment rate in all of Canada; 100,000 have lost their jobs in the oil patch; just last month 17,000 lost full time jobs; unemployment is shared with 192 million people worldwide..’  Do they wonder if they’ll ever work again?  How are they supposed to survive?  Where do they go from there?

Now, before you think this whole blog is a downer (first of all, you don’t know me very well) let me tell you about people that I know. These are people, although initially shocked with the new reality of their life, did something creative about it.  This was effected when they realized their past life offered a daily 2 hour commute; meeting upon endless meeting; the revelation that their 9 square meter cubicle was the reason their medication dosage had been increased;  daily lunch repeating itself more than CNN does; and the removal of original thought with business cliches (to be honest, the pipeline, reaching out, organic growth, core competency, value add, price point…).

So what did these people all do?  They became entrepreneurs and Different Direction Drivers (my new cliche, feel free to use it until it’s overused and then stop immediately, please!!!).   These people have become carpet cleaners, bookkeepers, virtual assistants, marketers, graphic designers, bakers and caterers, landscapers, contractors, photographers, web designers, caregivers, consultants, tutors, real estate agents, mortgage broker, hair stylists, house cleaners, and more.

Really, what they are is survivors. You can never mess with a survivor, they know they can’t be broken. Being hopeful, ingenious, and ultimately successful sometimes comes about because faced with no other choice, they must simply trudge on in a new direction. The other night I watched a movie about a man trying to survive the harsh conditions in the Arctic after his airplane crashed. He was very inventive and disciplined, showing that his will to live was strong. He used every method of survival that he knew about so that he would be rescued.  Hopefulness was evident by his actions, and with little resources or energy he used his strong mind to survive.

The daily news is troubling to say the least.  Sometimes what we experience in life is even worse than the news.  Subtle is not how I would describe life, I’d say it’s more about sudden motion, curves, spins, plummets, ripples, and remarkable highs and saddening lows.  Ultimately the secret to success when unemployment strikes is how we deal with this new and uncomfortable climate so that it effects a positive change in our lives.   We may be one second away from dropping the cliches and starting a new life.  We must also remember that it’s not  statistics that will hurt us, it’s giving up, giving in and not finding our way out of that cubicle.