I had an interesting conversation with my mother on Sunday.
Well, ALL conversations with my mother can be termed as “interesting”. They’re sorta like “mental lucky dip”, because you never know in advance what planet she’s going to be on. No, I’m not saying she’s crazy.
OK, if she is, it’s probably hereditary 🙂
Anyway, in the midst of otherwise lucid discussion that had absolutely NOTHING to do with this subject, she suddenly drags up the perennial, “Wouldn’t you like a little job a couple of days a week, in case *all this* ends”.
Now what she full-well knows but, it seems, CHOOSES to keep forgetting, (although you may not know), is that:
1. Little jobs are a tad thin on the ground here abouts. There are a handful of “mom and pop” stores, no industry at all and most people are still living off the land.
2. The nearest centres that _might_ produce something are a minimum 2 hours drive away over treacherous mountain roads that are often impassable in bad weather and seriously NOT to be recommended to the sane or in hours of darkness.
3. I haven’t been in a fit state of health to regularly and consistently travel to nor hold down outside employment, since I was taken ill in 1995. And, as proof, I was turfed out of the only two J.O.B.s I have tried to undertake.
You realise that *all this” refers to whatever it is that I’m messing about with here on the mysterious Internet.
Of course, my first retort was that J.O.B.s end.
She conceded that she saw this on the news every day.
I tossed the thought around (in my own mind), but couldn’t come up with a single argument to suggest that the Internet, as a communications medium, could get totally UN-invented.
The point dear mother just doesn’t seem to grasp is that it isn’t like the Internet “employs” me. I have control of my destiny now and I’m not about to give myself the boot!
Yeah, of course there are ups and downs.
With any freedom, there comes a huge responsibility.
Some of the downs have been caused by the crappy economy, market forces and technology changes. I have to respond to those things and find out what I can do to compensate — same as I would with any *real world* business.
Because of my situation, I am generally not able to respond as fast as I’d like. It often feels like everybody else is sprinting ahead while I’m stuck running on the spot.
An employer might NOT have my interests at heart at all. As is frequently the case, adjusting to the prevailing market forces might mean that I am the cost that gets shaved.
But you know what?
Whenever I was fired from a job, I went from whatever to ZERO in one swift and painful hit. To keep floating, I had to get another job, and FAST, to start over from scratch.
Yet despite the fact that I have whole weeks, even months, where I can’t manage to work for more than a few hours a day (or even when it’s longer, it’s painfully slow going because my head’s in a constant fog) and, although I’ve had some very lean months, I’ve still covered my bills, I have NO debts and I even have a few thousand in the bank.
Come on, how many people can say that, really?
Most people who HAVE jobs couldn’t, that’s for sure!
Point is, if you have relos like mine and, I’ll bet you have, particularly amongst the non computer-friendly types, then rest assured they are perfectly normal.
Boy, can’t they be INFURIATING?
They can actually be good practice though.
They make you think and answer questions for yourself, like:
“What exactly IS it that I’m doing here?”
They make you realise that you actually HAVE achieved something … (and they give you fodder for articles!)
Notwithstanding little old ladies who CAN understand, but can’t remember what you just explained 15 seconds later, the real reason people don’t “get it”, is often because it hasn’t been explained to them _in their language_.
It was probably for a school essay project, but I’ll never forget the advice: explain it like you would to a Martian.
It’s a useful exercise. It makes you use clear and concise language. It’s handy, whether you are explaining what you do to “outsiders”, writing a manual, heralding the benefits of your widget to a prospective customer …
Or simply clarifying what you are attempting to achieve to yourself. The latter is an essential pre-requisite to planning for success.
Copyright 2003 Pamela Heywood
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