Chapter 1: Applying the Lessons of Financial Disaster

For the last several years, I have experienced just about every financial disaster that can happen to a person. You’ve heard about mass layoffs, business failures, foreclosures, and bankruptcies. Families going through these situations feel extreme hopelessness and fear, and they come out on the other end somewhat different. A lot of their experiences are common. They all heard bosses say things will turn around. They all heard TV pundits call them whiners. They all heard friends and family tell them they were being pessimistic, that it can’t really be that bad, that they were just angry, and that they should get a grip.

I heard these words, and it chafed every time. For me, the only upside to today’s global economic collapse is that I went through this four years ago, and am not part of today’s downward spiral. Now, I can simply point to the television and say “See? I wasn’t making this up.”

That puts me in a unique position to share what I have learned.

I don’t offer these stories as someone who has been wildly successful in business. I am not coming from above the tenuous situation a lot of workers are in right now. I come from within it.

This series will illustrate my experiences and the lessons I took from them. Everybody who has been through a personal financial disaster has something to share from their experiences. That’s why it isn’t hard to find advice that will tell you to cut back spending, find a support network, and above all, stay positive.

I don’t see the need to repeat that advice. Much of it is common sense. And as for staying positive, you will have moments of absolute despair. It is not unhealthy. It would be unhealthy not to feel desperate, given the circumstances. It is healthy to share this feeling, and not hide it, with those who are close to you. It is also healthy to feel differently about things after the smoke clears.

There really is no going back. Your new experiences will become a permanent part of your personality. We are all the sum of our experiences, good and bad. What we take from these experiences, and what positive things we can do with that information, is what matters.

I guess that’s the first lesson.

I’ll tell you about me, and what I’ve been through. Or, what my family has been through, since my wife was and is always present in these experiences. A spouse is someone we need – As Susan Sarandon’s character says in “Shall We Dance” – to be a witness to our lives.

During the past decade, I have been part of at least 6 startup companies. None of them became a household name or an Internet sensation. These companies were more realistic. Some continued on to become marginally-sustainable businesses, while others crashed and burned completely. All of them brought new lessons about business how-to, and how-to-not.

In this series, I will discuss:

- Run For Shelter: How to see a layoff coming
- The Perfect CEO: What personalities and backgrounds make a good business leader
- Pick a Winner: How to guess whether a company will survive a crisis
- Patching the Quilt: How to craft a sensible resume from the shards of a career
- Climbing Back: The keys to building a sustainable business

The next few years will make or break the livelihoods of many who have been trampled by the recent economic meltdown. What government does will play a role, as will what investors and business leaders do. After that, there are social changes, global threats, and even weather events. How these affect us will be out of our hands. Our minds were never designed to worry about everything. As individuals, we should only worry about what we can control.

That’s lesson two.

This is offered in the spirit of building a better community for people in the workforce and who are temporaily out of it. For those who are lucky enough to still be in a job, I will cover the ways to see a layoff coming.