ARE YOU WILLING TO GET DEFEATED?

When Mr. Satheesh met me some fifteen years back, he was a broken man. He was totally depressed. He was radiating only negative energy.

“What happened Satheesh?” I asked him as he sat down in my chamber.

“You know about the bursting IT bubble…”

“Of course, yes.”

“My company has laid off a number of middle management staff. I am also a victim. Just at the end of the road. don’t know what to do…”

“I think company has given a lay off from your job, and presumably not from life.”

He raised his face and looked at me with a sense of hope.

“Listen, Life has only bends, not ends… Do you know a beautiful quote of Robert Bach – “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, butterfly calls it the beginning.”

He smiled.

“Young man. With what did you work in your company?”

“With the help of the skills I had acquired?”

“Are they still with you or have you lost them?”

He replied with a kind of impulsivity “Certainly they are only with me.”

“Then use them elsewhere. Take a different road…Find where you can market yourself. But if you must do it, you need to be positive. With this sort of negative frame of mind, no body will entertain your even for a discussion or a negotiation.

“Thank you… Feeling comforted. “

“Sharpen your axe. Look for the light. Travel in roads less traveled.”

He lifted his face.

“Believe me, nobody can defeat you, unless you are willing to get defeated.”

Sateesh is running his own business today and has employed over a hundred persons in his organization.

Recently when I met him, I asked “Hey… the next bubble is waiting to burst. How many are you laying off?”

He beamed a smile and said.” NO..NOT AT ALL”

In the recent past, I have come across many persons who are living with a fear of loss of job, or just looking for the day when the company will lay off its people. It is a new wave … many companies forecasting their downward trends and hence taking a precautionary retrograde step!

Abdul Kalam, the former President of India, made an interesting comment which reads:” Love your job but don't love your company, because you may not know when your company stops loving you.”

I have seen many persons who have been in quite enviable positions but when they had to leave them, they see the end of the road in their professional life. Oftentimes, their self-esteem touches low ebbs and they start wondering what is life worth living for. In most of these cases, they tend to be self-destructive.

MPN was a general manager of a leading auto-manufacturing company. Though he was a multi-skilled person he was given a safe ‘send-off’ for some trivial issues for which he alone was responsible. He carried ‘the general manager’ with him on his head everywhere he went and couldn’t see a similar opening. Years passed by.

“Life has been unfair to me. Everywhere I go someone or the other creates a roadblock for any new engagement.”

A retired successful man told him “I know who they are…”

This former “GM” was surprised. “Whom do you think?”

The elderly man said “Go and stand before the mirror. You will find him.”

“Coping with difficult people is always a problem, especially if the difficult person happens to be you.” Says John C. Maxwell.

Lay off happens. Companies are opened, run and closed. They engage people to work and not people to live…

Working profile is just one dimension of our engagement life. That should not. defeat us.

When you get a layoff... that is the time ... Relax... Turn to your family who have been waiting for years to spend time with you... Look at your cupboard... the books waiting to your kiss your hands... Remember the travel holidays about which you have been reading in the news papers every week… wondering when you will get a time...the delicious Pizza corner where you hesitated to step in because you carried an ego in your pocket along with your wallet... just step in..!!

Follow simple rules:

1.  Believe in yourself.

2.  Keep your self-esteem high.

3.  Sharpen your axe continuously.

4.  Be positive.

5.  Short term compromises are not indicators of failure.

6.  Be passionate about what you do.

7.  Prove to yourself every time that you are growing.

8.  Someone is waiting to pat your back... Don’t look around. It is you

9.  Accept change... Transform ... Keep moving.

10.             Weather and seasons are a part of Nature... both external and internal... Enjoy the season!

Are you already in a new job? Great!  But be ready for the next lay off…

Nobody can defeat you. unless you have decided to defeat yourself!