It has been an interesting year and one of huge changes for myself and my family. As many of you already know my wife Lore and I both lost our jobs of 20 years and 14 years respectively. We have faced the challenges head on and have learned that 2009 wasn’t the end but only the beginning. I am proud to say neither of us ever applied for or collected unemployment of any kind.
I was sitting with my son Chris on Christmas Day and I said to him, "at 56 I still think my future is in front of me". He looked at me and said, "well of course it is". It would be easy to say my future was 20 years ago and that was my time to build and learn. You can’t sit on your hands in today's computer age. If you’re not evolving and pushing yourself today you will be left behind tomorrow.
I try! That is all I can do. No one is holding my hand and I haven't had a mentor in my life to encourage me. I have great friends that have helped me but my early years where very much alone. I encourage mentor-ship and have seen first hand how a positive mentor can help a person's growth and success. My path has always been a self-taught journey. In my wisdom, I would advise a person starting out in anything to seek out a mentor!
Being independent has been great. It’s challenging and very different than anything I have ever done over the past 20 plus years. As I write, I have the news on the TV in the other room, the dog at my feet, no one to bother me with petty corporate power struggles, and in house-fighting. How good is that? I love it! The hardest part of this is reminding myself to get out of the house periodically and not to work 14 hours a day.
I look forward to 2010.
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