Friday Positivity

I woke up this morning feeling pretty positive after two weeks of ranging emotions. It could be because the Government is starting to talk about us being over the worst and finding a way to open up life and the economy again, even if there is no clear date for this. Also, several countries in Europe are setting specific dates to end restrictions, which is a positive sign that, hopefully, the worst is over.

Then my colleague, Chris Crenshaw, shared the picture above, apparently an email from the CEO of Jeffries, that is now doing the rounds on LinkedIn. I haven’t lived through all these but the two I have I can agree with the perspectives and conclusions.

It then got me reflecting about the two crises I did live through. In 2000 I was a young Tech Recruiter with a small company in England when the dot com bubble burst. I was made redundant and was lucky to get a severance package.

Being let go by that firm enabled me to take on a contract role with Accenture. That 6 months was still, to this day, one of the most formative of my career, in terms of the company I joined and the work I did. It was also some of the most fun. It allowed me to move back to London and reconnect with some old friends, who now, despite the fact I live on another continent, are still my closest and will be life-long friends.

After that contract I used the severance package to go travelling solo around the world for 8 months. Something that had a profound affect on my personality and character. When I got back, I found a contract with PwC which was my first leadership role and, again, an amazing learning opportunity.

None of these things would have happened if the banks hadn’t wildly overvalued some pretty crazy start up ideas.

In 2008 I’d been working in Investment Banking recruiting for a few years in New York. When the credit crunch first started my employer reduced operations in the US and brought me back to the UK to work with another Investment Bank, right up to the point Lehman finally crashed. At the end of the year I took voluntary severance (a brave, some would say - as my wife did - stupid move) as my employer was having to cut costs and I was at a bit of a cross-roads in my career. 

Through 2009 I was lucky to get two consulting gigs to keep working. While they were lucrative financially, they were soul destroyingly dull. This helped me really understand what I wanted to do with my career moving forward, the types of companies and people I wanted to work for and, that I wanted to live and work back in New York. Also, that compensation wasn't everything. At the end of 2009 I got a full-time job, still in London, but for a global firm that eventually enabled me to move back New York. I also happened to meet and work for my now boss, Mark Lee.

Would any of this happened without the rampant miss-selling of sub-prime mortgages?

I realize this crisis is different as people’s lives and health are on the line, however, the parallels in the economic impact seem remarkably similar. Hence, I can identify with the sentiments above and wanted to share my experience to show that some positives can come out of such bad situations. Even if it feels like the world is ending now, it isn't, we'll get through this.

To that end, I will leave you with two thoughts from very different sources:

“This too shall pass” – accredited to Persian Sufi poets

“The comeback is always greater than the setback” – Big Daddy Sitch, Jersey Shore

Stay safe and try to stay positive.