Lost your job? – It could be the best thing that happened to you!

Have you lost your job because you were made redundant, downsized, outsourced or retrenched? In the current turbulent economic times it’s pretty common.

Well I have lost my job several times – it’s part of my story. In fact in the 30 odd years when I had a job I was made redundant 5 times. Restructured, downsized, reorganised, retrenched, outsourced.

It doesn’t matter what you call it the effect is still the same. Each time it happened it was quite a drama. It really threw me. Even after a few times and when I could see it coming it was still a shock to the system when it finally did happen. Out on the street with no money coming in. I was forced out of my comfort zone. I had to think what I wanted to do next and get out of my comfort zone. I had to write my CV or rewrite it, ask referees if they would speak for me and then look for a job that interested me (or I thought I had a chance at getting) and go through the whole process of applying to a recruitment agency, having an interview with them, getting on the shortlist for the job and then getting interviewed by the company if I was lucky. Then sitting around waiting, waiting while they took forever to make a decision. Of course in most cases this was a no, so I would start the process again and again until someone said yes. It can drag on for months and it did for me. I spent each day looking in the paper and online and phoning and talking to people I knew with nothing to show for it. It begins to sap your strength and eats into your self confidence the longer it goes on.

And I did this 4 times over the years, because that’s what you did, you went and got another job. Sure I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to do and what sort of job I wanted and where I wanted to work and how much I wanted to be paid and what sort of industry and what sort of company and what sort of boss and what sort of culture and so on and so on.

I was on autopilot – thinking the same way that I had been taught to think all the way back since school – the way to earn money for you and your family is to get a good job – safe and secure.

Well that is just not true anymore. The job security and loyalty is just not there. The business landscape is changing more rapidly. The pressure on traditional businesses to perform for their owners is greater now than it has ever been. For these traditional businesses competition is more intense, costs are higher. They are forced to make tough decisions on an almost daily basis. If you are an employee you are at risk of being a victim of circumstance. I know, I have been made redundant 5 times.

Not only have I been on the end of being made redundant but as a company executive I had to make people redundant too, hundreds over my “job” career. And yes we had all the good corporate names for names for it too – outsourced, downsized, restructured, reorganised. So I guess I really should have known that job security was a myth. When I talked to many of the people who had been redundant at the time they were told about it, they were devastated. For some of them they had spent their whole working life at the company. But, when I spoke to those same people a while later after the initial shock had passed it was a different story. For lots of them it had turned into a good thing. It had forced them out of their comfort zone and opened their eyes to all the possibilities the world has to offer. I actually had people come up to me and thank me.

I should have listened to them! Because it wasn’t until the 5^th time I was made redundant (maybe I’m a slow learner!) and after several months on being on that autopilot, that I saw something that really made me think – What do I really want to do? What do I enjoy in my life? What is important to me? Is there another way of earning the money that I’m really worth, not what someone else thinks they can afford to pay me?

And of course the answer is yes, but until I saw that ad and read it through and spoke to someone who opened my eyes to what really is possible I hadn’t really thought about it.

So I decided to take on something new, to take charge of my financial destiny and become independent. Free from jobs and bosses and 9 to 5 and commuting and begging for time off to be with my family. I found a fantastic opportunity to get paid what I’m really worth, to enjoy the lifestyle I want and to develop myself along the way. I found a way to take me where I want to go and a fantastic group of people, all enthusiastic to help me achieve my goals.

So it is the best thing that ever happened to me, well apart from meeting my wife, that is!

To find out more and see if it’s right for you click here to  Cutloose.  Have a good look around my website and then make the right decision for your future. As the old Chinese saying goes:

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a person perfected without trials.”