Did you see the interview with Jim Rodgers about the pending recession? Bigger than anything any of us have ever experienced?
I saw it last week and meant to blog about it… but was trying to figure out how to do it without being a “star is falling” guy.
It’s worth the few minutes to watch… click this image and you’ll go to the website with the video:
So, that’s pretty gloomy. But wait, there’s good news! Kendall Baker wrote a piece on this showing he did some research, and he found that Jim Rogers is always predicting a huge crash… even saying it’s 100% inevitable that it is right around the corner. Check out Kendall’s article here… you can scroll through it quickly to see evidence of Rogers’ consistent claims. Kendall’s conclusion is “even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
The video, by the way, was posted this month. Kendall’s article was posted a little over a year ago.
So what if Jim is right? What if we see the worst recession in our lifetime? What will that mean? More importantly, how can we prepare?
Let me share something I learned in January of 2006: no matter how the economy does, you can experience your own personal recession at anytime, for many reasons that are out of your control.
I speak from experience. When my boss(es) said “we’re going to let you go,” the economy was great. But my personal economy was about to take a serious turn for the worse. The stress was almost enough to break me.
I have seen this same thing play out thousands of times since then. I have met users from all over the world… some are from countries where there is no economic positive outlook and no jobs (Greece and Spain), others are from places rich with opportunities (Silicon Valley)… but no matter what’s going on with the economy, something happened… maybe between them and the boss, or a customer, or the company owner was crazy… something outside of my user’s control, and viola… jobless. Months away from being homeless. Despair without end.
If you haven’t been there I hope you never go there.
If you have been there you know how dark it is.
Whether Jim Rogers is right or Kendall is right, what I know is that YOU MUST PREPARE. Prepare for a fallen economy, or for a closed company (Enron), or for a crazy boss, or for the time when you are asked to do something that goes against who you are as a person (lie, cheat, or steal). If I haven’t gone through it, I’ve seen it. And it’s no fun.
But, you can prepare. I see people do it all the time. People who are serious about maintaining a living. These are people who prioritize networking, relationships, branding, and career management. These are people who use JibberJobber, who read books to get better, who self-educate.
It’s a lot more fun to be prepared for a huge change, and to handle it well because you are empowered, than to take only what you can get and continually feel like you are daily become less and less of a person with a reason.
Prepare, now!