Lesson #2 From The New Depression
Lesson #2: You’re not worth as much as you used to be. Or what you do isn’t. (For Lesson #1 click here).
This is not that revelatory a concept It just sort of depends on how you think about how what you charge for what you do relates to your ‘worth’. Money isn’t everything and there is indeed a very real possibility that the New Depression will be a positive thing for our collective American psyche. Growth through struggle and hardship does indeed have a way of fortifying us, assuming we can make it through the difficult periods relatively intact. Which isn’t that simple, unfortunately.
Why is this important? It’s not really, I guess. I suppose it’s important because it means that the stuff you do, your contribution to society, is worth less than it used to be. Of course, if you’re in finance, it’s especially true. And you’ll get a lot of finger wagging and lectures from people that are not in finance, telling you that this is a comeuppance and that all of it is your just reward for your excess.
That’s essentially a blah comment only because so many different people reaped benefit from the bubble of easy money that it’s a little silly to try and isolate just one group of people. Those evil CEOs! But even in the artistic fields, in media, advertising, etc., the point isn’t that it’s a moral judgment, only that the money that you thought you were owed, that you worked so hard for, that money is less now. That’s all.
Maybe another way to say it is: walk softly because the edge you thought you’d earned in your business negotiations, the fees you feel are the result of all your hard work. Well, I guess you should take it if you can get it. But the way these things work, if you define yourself by how much money you make, you’re in trouble. Because it’s highly likely that you’ll make significantly less this year than you made last year which was less than the year before that.
What you do every day. Your thing. It’s not worth as much to society.
Lesson #2, pt II: It’s not personal. It’s not a moral judgement. It just is. Time to adjust. Time to take that five year test and ask yourself if what you do every day is making you happy. Because the get rich quick scheme that was going to take you to a country estate where you could write your novel and drink champagne as the sun set. Well, that thing is a little to a lot farther away.
Unless you got out early enough. In which case, you understand Lesson #3 of the New Depression which is: Timing is everything. And, once again, it’s not personal.
