Necessity

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A saying from a friend: "The best boat pump in the world is a sailor with a bucket... in a very leaky boat."

So true. In the last recession, spanning the years 2000-2001, our company started out with several sales professionals. We ended the recession with just one... that ONE was me. I believe I represented the sailor with a bucket. Who more than the owner of my small company, after all, knew how much bailing how many sales were required? This time around, the entire van Schouwen Associates staff is truly engaged and actively involved in seeking and leveraging all opportunities. In other words, we have more sailors with buckets now. This is better.

Of course, I keep making the mistake of looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is one global representation of the water level in our collective economic boat. The DJIA is currently under 7,000, pretty dismal, eh? I hope by the time I hit the "publish" button for this blog entry, it has gone back up. (Really, aren't we running out of patience for this?)

You know best what bailing your own boat means to you. Perhaps, literally, it means your job isn't what it used to be and you need to... sorry... BAIL and get a new one. (Okay, I won't play with the word "bail" anymore, really. Don't go. I'll say "necessity" instead.)

For our company, necessity means we continually strengthen our prospecting and outreach efforts - something I think we're good at anyway - because we need to keep the phone ringing. To accomplish this, we're working our butts off. Not to put too fine a point on it.

Impersonal? Are you kidding?

A glance through my last couple of weeks' email dispels - at least for me - the widely held concept that email has depersonalized communication, harshened our tone, and further isolated us from one another. Oh, sure, "you've got mail" on your screen is not the same as a perfumed note with dried violets inside (but how often did you ever get such a thing even in the "good old days" of snail mail?)

In my email, here are just a few happy examples received in just in the last few weeks:

From one high school friend to another, copied to a whole group of us scattered around the world, solace upon his losing a much-loved job (this was accompanied by an excellent essay on why and how he should consider self-employment):
To quote David Brown, "the rest of your life is the best of your life".

A coworker from 25 years ago connected with me through email and shared these thoughts on children - his range from adults to a toddler, so he certainly knows:
When you have kids you get to watch how nature and nurture interact to make a whole person with his or her own quirks, strengths, weaknesses and, of course, with everything that makes us all human together.

And from a member of my book group, a heartfelt sentiment about middle age:
I can't remember s**t these days.

I hear from someone in my family, or an old and new friend, nearly every day in part because no one needs a stamp to get in touch. And because email is easy and quick. That's fine. Their emails feel to me as personal and wonderful as any note or card in the mailbox, plus simpler for the sender to accomplish than a phone call when time is short or schedules are odd. Email me anytime.

Cataclysms, unexpected turns and renewal

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Were you looking for logic per se?

Here's guessing: 2009 will be a year during which more people than average experience life upheavals. With hundreds of thousands of layoffs, companies closing and money shrinking, it seems obvious that security elements of our lives are getting trampled. In a new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas by Matt Miller (jokingly characterized in one review as "Commie Pinko Socialism") Miller proposes that we can't expect what we've come to expect (health care from our employer, cradle-to-grave work from same said employer, etc.) and proposes new solutions. Government solutions, largely.

That's one look at cataclysm, unexpected turns and renewal. Some of the change I expect to see, in myself and others, will be from within. Frankly, I've had a window-view of big change as of late - I lost a husband - a good one! - to heart disease suddenly in 2006, and my two young sons have done what young sons often do - they went off to college and life, calling and emailing me remarkably often but nonetheless no longer daily eating my hotdog casserole (recipe not necessary) or savoring my daily advice on Girls, Grades and Grammar. That was big change in my book, and I'm slowly following it with big renewal - closer ties with old and new friends, new love, a new blog (this one! this one!) new speaking engagements, and an updated love affair with boats. Plus, less visibly, a new viewpoint. A few examples: I can now imagine being released from a job (although since I'm self employed I can always have a job, just maybe no pay). Or ending a relationship (personal or business) that makes one feel uninspired or less than worthy. Or perhaps exchanging a spacious home and an hour-long commute for an apartment in town from which one can walk, or bike, to the office. These days I can imagine not only the fear, but also the eventual liberation that a once-unwanted change could bring. Fear and uncertainty aside, I finally see that big change can mean new opportunity - the cliche "when one door closes one door opens" is sometimes true.

Are YOU a good recession citizen?

There are good reactions and bad reactions to living in The Current Economic Climate. Depending on what extremes you care to go to (and listed here in no particular priority) I venture to classify the following as good and bad responses:

Good: Pointing out to your offspring that college is very expensive and that excellent careers exist in growing fields like Unemployment Check Printing, Developing Dollar Menus at McDonald's and the like. Better yet, certain of these careers require only a fifth grade education, so you can also save money on school supplies and clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch by forgoing middle and high school.

Bad: Hoarding your money if you still have a good job and could be supporting the rest of us, for example by buying items we've placed in our front yards for sale, or have dangled temptingly before you on eBay. Buy something, wouldya?

Good: Letting your cousin or your brother move into your basement when she or he loses that job Printing Unemployment Checks.

Good: Planning for a dreamy life that isn't so expensive. My little dream? Waiting tables in the Virgin Islands and living in a hut with a grass roof. Yum. (Okay, sure, it's just a dream and yes, we'll turn in your projects next week as promised, dear clients!)

Bad: Trying to shame other people because they have to make an income and thus attempt to charge you a living wage. ("How dare you charge me $4 for a latte? Haven't you read the news?") Skip the drama and make your own coffee if that's the way you feel.

Good: Buying an investment property or investing in stocks. But read Suze Orman's new book and advice columns first, since I don't know bupkas about this.

Bad: Assuming this slump will last forever. It won't, especially if you keep working, buying grass huts and humming a little song as you go through your day.

Please tell us the good and bad recession citizenship examples you're seeing. All our readers are in the mood to hear them because all anybody talks about anymore is... surprise!... The Great Recession! Cheers.

The mind at rest, kind of.

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My sister Molly sent the family an email that read:

Last night I dreamed that I had saved my dream as the wrong file type and I couldn’t open it.

First, I must express my admiration of a dream so terse and still so meaningful. It makes my recurring dream of being lost on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston and knowing I need to walk the 90 miles home in the dark seem... well, rather stale.

More to the point, I think my sister just had the ultimate "I'm stressed and not exactly having the time of my life" dream that deserves the 2009 Great Recession Award.*

(*All credit for the term "Great Recession" is ceded to my older son, Zach.)

When I get stressed, I misplace credit cards, keys and other everyday necessities. Sometimes I misplace them in restaurants or public restrooms, which is unfortunate. My sister, apparently, mis-saves dream files.

When I get stressed, I can lose touch with my aspirations, my joys and my confidence. My sister can't even dream her damn dream.

On the other hand, don't you think the mind is a wonderful thing? What a creative way for her brain to say, "Hey kid, you could use some downtime and fun, because life is taking you away from yourself."

May she open her next dream file with ease.

History, and yikes, and history.

History

Barack Obama's inauguration was so moving. Not just because he's broken one of our nation's most ferocious barriers, the mental block of race, but also because he is highly intelligent. And assertive. And he appears to have a plan. Whooo-eee!

And he's already working. He's stopped for review Bush's last "midnight regulations", which included allowing carrying concealed weapons in some national parks. He's moved to halt war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo, and is meeting with the national security team to determine direction in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama is already back to work on the much-needed economic stimulus plan, too.

Yikes

Then why can't I stop my personal "yikes" factor from kicking in, even yesterday, on such a historic day?

Just a few reasons, small and large.

-The speech. It was grim. I was hoping our problems, particularly economic, wouldn't sound so... grim yesterday. Obama is clearly taking the current not-so-hot state of this nation seriously, because that was not a soaring speech, but a get-our-hands-dirty-we've-got-urgent-problems call to action.

-The stock market. The Dow fell four percent to celebrate the day. Super.

-People. Take Timothy Geithner, vying to be Treasury Secretary. Look, even I know to pay all my self-employment tax, and nobody would consider me to be their bookkeeper, let alone Treasury Secretary. Self-employment tax is a no-brainer. And, once you've spotted an error in your taxes, going back a few years to see if you've made that same error multiple times is not rocket science either.  With Obama, we raised our expectations for excellence in leaders. Let's not lower them for his appointees. Barack Obama can't do his job alone, and the people who surround him need to be really smart and really honest.

History

In four years, we'll remember this historic day. The "yikes" factors will, I hope, have faded. Hopefully our set of problems will have shifted somewhat. Your thoughts?

The cliche, the truism and the cult of utter boredom.

I don't want to develop a facial tick, or make wrinkled-nose faces while reading or listening to the news. So I'm going to start right now and make a list of TRIGGER PHRASES that are so cloyingly obvious or dull that they turn me into one of those pseudo-intellectual, attired-in-black, library-haunting literary types that YOU NEVER INVITE TO YOUR PARTIES.

Please help me with this list by adding your own "banish me" phrases so that we may save the world.

In the press... those terrible story wrap-ups on TV and radio news - the "duh!" factor:

"And so it seems that the conflict in Gaza is has not nearly reached its conclusion."

"Wall Street continues to confuse its investors after another down day."

"Corruption appears to be rampant among the rebel forces."

"It may be years before the courts determine who is to blame for this sordid mess."

"It is likely that we will not see a resolution to the tense political situation anytime soon."

Setting the stage for a news story or editorial:

"In today's difficult economy ..."

"Facing legal and ethical challenges from her opponents..."

"Today, more than ever, businesses face competitive pressures (blah blah blah)"

"This deal helps Wall Street, but what about Main Street?"  (Never, anyone, never, write this one again. And don't even consider rephrasing it.)

"At times like these..." (add annoying obvious phrase here - make sure it mentions the virtues of saving money, family, eating vegetables grown at home, AND faith in a Higher Power, preferably all in a single sentence)

"It remains to be seen whether the Congress will act."

"President Bush said today..."   (Ha ha! Guess what! This one will resolve itself in just 12 days!)

Product descriptions that really really inspire:

"We stand for quality."

"Quality is what sets us apart."

"Scientists have improved..."

"We have the solution tailored to your specific needs."

"You too can lose weight while enjoying your favorite foods!"

"You too can lose weight without difficult exercise or painful diets!"

Sigh.

I, for one, am off to find a doughnut. I hope you'll add your favorite in-the-media cliches to this list. Until next time, I'm signing off!