It’s fair to say that many people go through at least one
season of financial difficulty sometime in their lives.
It’s often part of the
ladder-climbing experience when just starting out. Or it occurs between jobs,
or is due to an injury or downed economy.
The season, although difficult, can actually hold
forth much benefit. Call these benefits surprising silver linings, lessons
learned from hard times.
About ten years ago, in my mid-30s, I officially opened my
own editorial business.
Five months later, my business officially failed.
What followed was what my wife Mary Margaret and I today
call “our lean season.” We weren’t poor by global standards—we still had a roof
over our heads and ate three meals a day.
But by G8 standards, we were broke. We were uncertain about how
to pay our bills, in danger of losing our house, and fearful and stressed about
our immediate and future financial situation.
During that winter, I applied for more than 80 jobs. I went
on interviews, attended job fairs, networked with business owners, and passed
out copies of my résumé by the dozen.
Blame the collapse of the newspaper industry. The field was
flooded with hungry, well-credentialed journalists looking for work. Time after
time, the answer was no.
Today, almost a decade later, Mary Margaret and I talk with
people who have experienced similar lean seasons. We have good friends, for
instance, a surgeon and his wife, who tell about the few years in medical
school right after their daughters were born. They lived in an apartment with
rats.
This is what we learned about lean seasons from talking with
others, and also from our own experience.
1. You discover you have good friends
Some people experience financial
difficulty and react by feeling embarrassed. They clam up and try to keep up
appearances of financial success.
We chose to go other direction. We openly
talked about our situation with the people closest to us, seeking their
emotional support and gleaning their advice.
It’s funny. Word gets around, and
weird things begin to happen. Someone brought us ham. Another person fixed our
car for free.
If you’re normally in the position
of being self-sufficient, it can feel strange at first to receive the kindness
of people in your community.
But it didn’t feel like a hand out
to us. It felt like a hand up. People knew we would do it for them if needed,
and it was simply our turn to receive.
2. Your character gets shaped for the better.
I don’t look back and speak about
our lean season with fondness. Those weren’t “the good old days,” and, no, I’d
never want to go through that time again.
But out of that season came good.
It created empathy with people who struggle financially. It created a good type
of humility, a recognition that we’re all in this life-thing together.
And it created an appreciation for
the simpler things of life. I remember when my wife and I were finally able to
afford a $40 Costco membership. We literally whooped and gave each other
high–fives.
3.
Desperation
can become one of your greatest allies.
If you have a job you dislike and
dream of doing something different, it can be easy to continue on year after
year. You’re filled with angst, but your steady salary makes it difficult to
walk away.
Desperation can provide the courage
needed. The same is true if you’re flat out of work.
During our lean season, I became
fearless in how I approached my job search. I’d talk to anybody, anytime, about
any opening.
I’d brazenly ask people for
career-oriented favors—either to be introduced their boss or to put in a good
word for me about an opening.
Ultimately, my desperation
propelled me to create my own job. Several months later I restarted my
editorial company. And the second time around, it succeeded.
How about you?
Have you ever gone through a “lean season?” Perhaps you’re there now.
What have you learned along the way?
Over the past several years I've written a variety of essays for the Art of Manliness, a truly excellent webzine with a large following.
