President's Day, 2004

Monday, February 16, 2004. A day that will live in infamy…okay. It wasn’t that bad.

I was still in the technology space, but it had been a bumpy four years. My company made a lot of bad acquisitions in 2000 and 2001, and the employees paid the price.

We had something like 15 rounds of layoffs and reorganizations in four years.

My manager and I went from selling one product line in three states with a $1.5 million quota for me to multiple product lines (from all the acquisitions) into 12 states and a $15 million quota.

I was traveling from Austin to Wisconsin to Ohio and everywhere in between.

Then I got the request for a call…on President’s Day…it was a holiday for my company.

My manager emailed me asking if I could talk. I knew that was not a good sign.

We had four kids six and under and were wondering if we were pregnant with our fifth, which, by the way, was the only one we tried to have. (I’ll tell that story in another post.)

Our first came while I was still in the Air Force, so that was easy peasy. Our second came 360 days later when I was unemployed and out of the Air Force. That was not so easy peasy.

Our first girl came within 45 days of us moving two states (1,844) miles and changing jobs and careers in early 2000.

Our second girl came right after we moved into a new home, and I had just bought a blue Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide…which I then sold.

So we always joked that we couldn’t just do one big thing at a time. We must move houses, jobs, and careers and have a kid simultaneously.

Anyway. I tell my wife, “Hmmm. I got an email from John. He wants to talk today. That’s not good.” She knowingly nodded and continued setting up a little picnic on our front lawn since it was a beautiful day in central Texas.

I had the call with John, who informed me I was being laid off, but they wanted me to stay on for six weeks to help with the transition and work a trade show in San Antonio. If I did that, I’d also get a decent severance.

I agreed and walked outside to be with my wife and four little ones. As my wife looked up, I smiled and said, “You’re pregnant,” She replied, “You got laid off.”

We both knew that this was the way.

We laughed and had lunch.

The six weeks went by.

I worked the trade show.

And before my severance ran out, the company’s former President had relocated from Connecticut to be the new CEO of a startup in Austin.

He heard I was laid off and hired me immediately, with a raise. And within eight months—barely two months after our third girl, the fifth child, was born—they helped us relocate to California to be near my wife’s family, and we have been here ever since.

Life rarely plays out like you plan.

It’s one thing to post a meme about dancing in the rain.

It’s another to live it out.

God has always provided for us.

We’ve held onto our faith.

We’ve stayed involved in our communities.

We’ve taken care of our health.

I’ve continuously invested in myself to improve my sales, marketing, speaking, communication, and technological skills.

We’ve not burned any bridges.

We’ve taken some risks.

We’ve lost on some of those bets.

But God has always provided.

There’s a hard rain coming now.

You’ve survived every other challenge that has come your way.

Sure, you may have some scars to show for it, but the scars prove that you survived.

You’ll survive this one.

And you’ll be stronger for doing so.

Stay the course.

Keep the faith.

Endure.

Market like you mean it.

Now go sell something.