A comment that was made in a thread here last week to the effect that most people who comment here seemed to be doing all right touched a nerve. My business is not doing all right. I don’t have a huge number of clients and the client I’ve billed the most for many years has cut back drastically. That means my income will fall substantially this year.
We’re not in trouble. My wife has a job she excels at and she earns a good income.
My situation is only related to the stagnant economy very indirectly. It’s a combination of my own darned fault and bad decisions (against my advice) made by my client.
About 15 years ago I stopped prospecting as hard as I should have. I had plenty of business, as much as I cared to do. I even turned down some work. I knew better than that but I did it anyway. Now the hole in my schedule that used to be filled by that one client looks a lot larger.
I’ve never planned on retiring. I still don’t. Right now what I’m doing looks a lot more like retirement than like working. Unfortunately, most of my contacts are dead or retired and, well, the world has changed. To bring in the business that I want I’ll need to work a lot harder than I’m accustomed to. It wouldn’t be what a friend of mine calls my “highest and best use” but stocking shelves at Whole Foods looks better all the time.
That comment was of course mine. And I certainly don’t want to offend (at least when I’m being serious) anyone here, especially when it comes to their financial well being.
As anyone here knows, or should know, my personal view is minimalist – only the necessary – government. The balance is inefficient, subject to regulatory capture and burdensome on the better – if not perfect – sector, the private sector. And that is my view and how I comment on various economic and business issues.
I can’t comment on self inflicted wounds. We’ve all done it. For example, our firm currently has an extremely troubled investment that with all that I know and have experienced we should have passed on. We didn’t, and now we have to fix it. It happens. If it was easy, everyone would have a spotless track record.
But you guys and gals know me, I don’t shy away from telling it like I see it. Our government is a mess. Broke, meddlesome, inefficient, pulling precious resources from the private sector and making moronic “investment” decisions faster than we can cope with them. The electorate put these people in power, to their own detriment. The current president is clueless. And Harry Reid? My god. Nancy Pelosi? My god.
I can’t speak to the personal decisions anyone, here or elsewhere, have made. But the deadweight drag of government policy is not helpful. They have spawned inflation, whether anyone believes it or not. That is just about a criminal act. They have spawned more unemployment than necessary by increasing employment costs above what they need be, all in the name of goodies for votes. They have created an anti-business environment at the exact time they should be doing the opposite. Everyone here votes. Careful what you wish for.
I think one’s life oftentimes resembles a sine wave, where it slopes up, reaches a peak of productivity, and then gradually recedes as variables — people, places and things — constantly keep changing around us. Depending on how active and participatory one’s lifestyle is, it can be a repeating pattern, or not
The key to life, though, is doing something meaningful and fulfilling to you. When people can find such a niche then they are better able to withstand the ebbs, flows and unpredictability that is intrinsically present for most of us. Also, I believe that meaningful work has a direct line to one’s soul’s expression, where there is no tenure or allotted time expiration such as ‘retirement.’ You just keep doing what you love, finding purposeful pleasure in doing so.
For instance, my husband’s grandfather was an incredible mechanist and inventor. Even in his advanced age, with crippling arthritis, where he had to use two canes to walk, he maintained a 3-story workshop. And, when he was in there working on a project, the enthusiasm generated from such a task actually seemed to overcome the stiffness and pain in his limbs. A mind over matter kind of thing……
“The current president is clueless.”
John Podhoretz must have an app on his Iphone that taps right into Drew’s brain:
John Podhoretz, Commentary, Time to Get Serious.
“I even turned down some work. I knew better than that but I did it anyway. ”
For a number of years I was a free-lance editor. I was always afraid to turn down work for fear they wouldn’t call me again. While at times the workload was heavy, I was never really overwhelmed. But that fear was a goad.
Dave:
You can go in on my fantasy retirement food truck with me. We do a little prep in the AM, then we serve lunch to yuppies while sneaking sips of beer and abusing the customers.
“I’ve never planned on retiring. I still don’t.”
Is that really possible for you? I used to think that also, but I now realize that I just wont be able to physically cope with functioning at a high level at 3:00 AM after working all day, then trying to do the same with maybe a day’s rest in between.
Steve
Obama’s enduring personal success is more a matter of being the perfectly groomed vessel to navigate the perfect political storm this nation is now experiencing.
I don’t think the outcome, though, will be a pretty one, as his touted strengths rely on a canopy of weaknesses he has germinated during his presidency, rather than actually promoting real growth and confidence in the economy.
Furthermore, the loyal cadre of supporters flocking to him have materialized mainly via the divisive political strategies implemented, ginning up conflicts between classes, genders, races and age groups, creating a stitched together fabric of special interest groups comprising his electoral victories. However, such a piecemeal base is, in the long run, frailer than one enjoined by consolidating common long term goals and healing differences, which weaves into the tenet of an intensely divided country falling faster than one bound, as a whole unit, pulling together.
Jesus, Jan, is English your second language?
Maybe, you just have a low comprehension, Sam.
Give it up. Your stuff makes Babu English look downright lapidary.
I normally avoid criticizing anyone’s English — given my own odd grammar and spelling choices and over reliance on m-dashes — but honestly Jan, no idea what you said. Reads like a bad cut and paste.
Maybe you could shorten it to “I hate Obama.” That generally covers everything you have to say.
Yikes! We are found out. I belong to cadre A23. We report for our grooming detail in June.
Steve
A tempting offer. It’s at least as good as stocking shelves at Whole Foods.
One of the advantages of chronic pain (if “advantage” is the right word for it) is that I’m in no more pain than I was fifteen years ago. I can run without getting winded, I work out four times a week, I take no medications, blood pressure, etc. are fine. After decades in the martial arts I can “zen” my way through practically anything. I’m in better physical condition than men decades my junior.
Guess I hit a nerve when I get 3 zany replies, all in one thread. Just pile it on, guys!
I think one’s life oftentimes resembles a sine wave….
And jan inadvertently reminds me of the night when I learned never, ever drink beer out of little plastic cups. (The problem is that I completely lost track of how much I was drinking, of course, which led to the first hangover I ever had – it lasted three miserable days. I swore off drinking for several years afterwards.) Before I was completely lost in my cups, however, I was explaining to a friend, who was having a VERY bad time of it, that life is like a sine wave, complete with graphs drawn on a table top with beer foam. The night led to several other dissolute and disreputable events which are not worthy of comment, at least in part because of very unclear memory. Ah, to be young and stupid again!
sam
You clearly don’t have the slightest clue what my view is. Let’s say its because I have not been clear.
I don’t think he is a stupid man, I think he is of average intelligence. I think he is a very shrewd politician. I think he has no clue about economics, or business, or how to foster an environment where small businesspersons can prosper. Not one. What he does know is how to gain favor with powerful interests like Goldman, Bof A or GE to gain moneyfor campaigns, and do his bidding in the press as cover for his agenda. I also don;t think he has an honest bone in his body. He’s a flim-flam man. No one who describes Emil Jones as a “political godfather” could. You may not understand the reference, but Dave surely does.
So I have no use for him. Dishonest to the core. Manipulative to the core. Obviously not one I share philosophy with. But most fundamentally, someone I don;t think really gives a rats ass about the Average Joe. They are just pawns in his grander scheme. That’s the definition of a no good fuck.
I’m sure you disagree, but look at the tate of affairs,
I wish you the best, Dave. And I now have some regret about posting a comment about an Algebra test for a stock-boy position, though it was true* and I was haunted by it and the kid that benefited was troubled by it. I too am dependent upon clients and they disappear into liquidations or mergers or a friend from college from time to time, and I probably should be doing more, but mostly what appears to work is doing a good job for a client who gives a referral when someone else has a similar need or problem. Dependent on clients. I will probably benefit from the lack of experience behind me. I get calls from graduates wanting to do my job for free to get the experience to get in the door somewhere. People with more letters behind their names than me.
* Having not seen the test, I don’t know that Algebra was required, as opposed to the kid found Algebra useful to solve the math question.