Saved by the coffee shop

What would you do if you got "downsized" (or "right-sized" as the new company lingo would have it)?

Losing a job, for men in particular, is losing an identity. It was for Michael Gates Gill, an Ivy League grad with a mansion in Westchester County, New York, a great job in the ad business and a wife and family.

Then he lost his job and according to a story that aired this morning on CBS' Sunday morning, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. His riches-to-rags story ends with him working at a Starbucks.

And now, Tom Hanks is going to play his part in a movie.

It's a splendid little story that can't help but make one wonder how one would approach a similar situation.

How about you?

I work with a number of people who are beginning the transition of riding high to not being able to even find a job. I truly believe we are all a day or a week away from facing such a challenge, and we are not living in a society that embraces that possibility. Most people I meet feel they have earned what they have simply because they made all the right choices. Few of them were born into poverty. Few of them even want to understand the culture of poverty. Yet they go to church every Sunday and only when they get zinged do they wake up.

Quote from a client with over $250,000 in assets:
"Do you mean I have to be destitute to get help?" and he wasn't kidding. I truly believe we need to realize that the human race was not evolved/created to live completely independent of one another, but to be there to catch each other's backs. Yet until something tragic/drastic happens to us we comfort ourselves with... I have what I have because I made good choices.. and "they" didn't. It gets much tougher when I becomes they.

My father told me that I would learn far more from my mistakes than my successes, and this seems to be in the same vein. Fact is, it's true. 6 years ago I was forced from a job I loved into staying home with an ill family member. That experience changed me forever. And--even though I returned to a similar line of work--that changed the way I look at it. I must say that I think attitude has a lot to do with how we cope with any hardship encountered in this life.
Merry Christmas!