I recently came across an article called The Golden Quarter, that had this to say:

“In the nine quarter-century periods since the American republic was founded in 1789, the one with highest economic growth and job creation was the period from 1983 through 2007.  Particularly remarkable — there were just four quarters (out of 100) of negative economic growth in that entire interval, says … [the] Chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.”

 Usually I try to keep my posts here pretty positive, but according to the statement above, a good majority of my life has been spent in the most prosperous times EVER.  So when most everyone I know is working harder for less money, it’s no small task to keep your outlook rosy.  While there are signs that things getting a bit better, I highly doubt that we’re going to return to those “golden quarter” times instantly.  It’s a sobering thought that in the future you’re just gonna have to work harder for everything, whether it be a home loan, a successful business or that Tahitian vacation you’ve always wanted. 

If you’re lucky enough to have a job right now, then your work NEEDS you.  Everyone has scaled back to the bare minimum, and if you’re still there, that means that you’re important and you’ve got lots of work to do.  So now, more than ever, is a time for balance.  A time to prioritize, get organized, get focused and really investigate the return of investment on your time.  You often hear about the return of investment on dollars, but time is just as precious.  If you’re not able to get the time you need to recharge, to see family and friends, to workout, to sleep enough, whatever it is you need to feel like a human and not a hamster on an endless wheel, you’re not going to be as present and useful as you could be, in all aspects of your life.  Take a good look at how you spend your time; are the projects that are the most consuming the ones with the most impact?

Yes, life post Golden Quarter may not be as easy as it once was, but I think it’s a good opportunity to be more conscious, and a good challenge to be more efficient.  Can you be twice as busy, just as successful and just as happy?  I think a lot of people have realized that what has happened over the past few years has just been one big wake up call, a giant ladle stirring the pot and the realization that no matter whom you want to blame, in the end, we as a society, as an economy, failed. Americans don’t like failures and we’re all in this together, so now the challenge becomes not be controlled by hard work, but to be in control of your time, with the clarity of mind pick up the pieces and energy enough to innovate and do better next time.   Do you know what you need in your life to be able to do that?

Just a few weeks ago, I finished up internship #5.  You know how I know it’s finished?  ‘Cause they hired me.  I went from Social Media Intern at H2O Audio to a full time employee complete with benefits and an ocean view desk.  And this isn’t the first time that an internship has ended this well.  It’s how I started my first career in radio, so when I was laid off my job, I decided to go back to square one. The radio industry was changing and I didn’t see a future for myself there and interning got me a job I loved, so it could do it again right?

With my intern cronies at one of my first radio internships...look how happy I look in my late 90's sunglasses...

After losing my job last January, I had severance pay and a surprising amount of options.  Some people told me to travel, some asked if I’d enroll in grad school, others told me about the wonders of day filled with X-box Live and on-line poker.  At the same time, an old co-worker offered me a minimum wage paying part time job. He was drowning in work and needed some good help, so I obliged.   Part of my duties at my part time gig were to once again be in charge of a small herd of interns.  It’d been part of my job before so it was easy to step back into.  But the difference this time was that in the mornings I kept college kids busy with filing I didn’t want to do, then became the one doing the filing in the afternoons.  At the same time I picked up the part time job, I’d worked my contacts and gotten myself an internship with Osiris shoes** which meant that I dispensed menial tasks in the morning, then drove 10 mins across town and became the one picking them up in the afternoon.

I kept this up for about 6 months and what I learned during this time was that the things I hadn’t wanted to do in the morning, I had no problem doing in the afternoon.  Without deadlines, an overflowing inbox or really any responsibility, I was more than happy to file papers or compile tedious reports. And this is the beauty of internships.  To use a business cliché, it’s “a win-win situation”.  As an employer you get to pass off a few time consuming tasks, plus have the opportunity to hire a tested employee that requires less training.  As an intern you get the invaluable chance to gain contacts, real world experience and to test drive a job with little commitment.

Every company is unique in the way they run, they way information travels and the way employees relate to each other.  So you can write all the resumes, get all the degrees and read all the books you want, but you’re never going to be able to gain the same knowledge you get from diving in and getting your hands dirty.  I think internships are the modern day equivalent of being an apprentice and I recommend it to everyone.  Better employees, less turn over and the possibility that you’ve helped someone decide what to do with their life.  I’ve talked to skeptics who think you should never give your time away for free, but it’s not just free labor, it’s a labor of love, and when you love what you do, to me, that equals success.

**I ultimately had to leave Osiris, ‘cause there just weren’t any jobs to be had, darn economy….But much love to everyone over there!  They were more than awesome to me and I still rock the shoes!!  It wasn’t until 2 months later that I came across the opportunity at H2O Audio that led to my current job…

No one has done this before.  Sure the economy has faltered in the past, but now add social networks with the population of entire continents, sound bites have been reduced even further to the 140 characters of Twitter, and there’s an entire generation of kids out there who will never know life without the Jetson’s like invention called Skype.  It’s indeed a brave new world out there.  We’ve totally changed the way information moves in our society and that effects everything, from business to personal and all that falls in between.

The Social Media Prism

We’re all looking at each other, barely figuring things out as fast as they’re moving and although people in this industry weren’t able to offer me much advice, there was no lack of support.  I’m so grateful to a huge list of people who took the time to answer ALL my questions, offer up their own stories and tell me to hang in there.  There’s a saying out there that goes something like, ‘hard times show you what people are really made of’, and the people in this industry have shown me nothin’ but love.  What better motivation could there be to keep up the quest to work along side these fine folks?

Tried and true advice may be hard to come by, but I feel like support is just as good.  The fact that no one has been here before leaves a lot of room for possibility. If we take the time to teach and learn from each other, then maybe we can straighten out some of our financial problems and answer other important questions such as how to read the Social Media Prism or finally determine the official past tense of “To Twitter”.  Happy 2010 everyone, may your family be healthy and all your texting jolly.

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This is a great commentary on how sensationalized media coverage can be, especially in reference to action sports…but I also happen to find it freakin’ hilarious…

I’d just finished a working lunch at my desk, answering e-mails and eating a sandwhich when chaos exploded in the hallway behind me and wham!  I was nailed in the back of the head with a Nerf torpedo.  I’d installed a rear view mirror on the corner of my computer monitor just because of such attacks, but it happened so quickly, I didn’t even see it coming. The Nerf guns were left over from a promotion we’d done earlier that month and they quickly became the office outlet for stress.  After the Nerf guns, it moved to baby basketballs, then to marshmallow shooters, you were never really safe, even if you closed your office door.  I guess some could say that such conduct is unprofessional, or even obnoxious, but I wouldn’t want to work any other way. 

 In the everyday stresses of deadlines, crunching numbers, and meetings, meetings, meetings it can be hard to remember that, for most us, what we do is not life or death.  You don’t have to be serious to be professional and hard work can be fun.  It’s amazing what you can get done with people who work as hard as they play and at every opportunity blur the line in-between. 

 There are companies out there who figured this out, and ANY job is hard to come by these days, so why not aim high?  For me, I feel like I don’t have a choice, I’ve seen how great work can be and in the long run know I can do better than a library quiet cubicle farm.   So, don’t settle for anything less than a Nerf gun.  Great companies are out there, and there are a ton of them in this industry.  Keep up the search and you too could know the joy of wading through e-mails while readying yourself for possible attack.

I’ve been actively applying for jobs in the action sports industry for just shy of two years now, and about a year ago, I went pro. (i.e. was laid off my job, for more about that see my bio.)  And while I realize that what I’m attempting is a very difficult task, (switch-careers-in-the-worst-economy-since-the-great-depression-into-a-notoriously-competive-industry) after applying for position after position and not so much as even being acknowledged by the company you were applying to, you start to feel a bit downtrodden, dare I say, on-sale and I start to wonder, is anyone buying what I’m selling?

I’m sure many a business person has pondered this question, and in this case what I’m selling is me.  Although some may think this involves a mini skirt and a pair of stilettos, it’s actually just a ton of cover letters and follow up.  I’m aware that, right now, companies with open positions receive literally hundreds of resumes a day and having been on the other side of the hiring coin, I don’t blame them for not responding to everyone, but still it can make you question your skills.

So, in my endless quest to improve my product, I attended the Action Sports Innovators Panel held by The University of San Diego’s Entrepreneurs Club on Monday night.  There, the point was made that no matter how amazing your product, if you’re lacking a distribution channel, you have nothing.  All my work experience, passion, thought and spell checking are just a .doc file on my computer if they’re not in the hands of the right person.  Now, more than ever, this is the essence of job searching.  Setting up as many contacts as you can, building relationships and exhausting every contact you have.  Even your brothers, girlfriends, dog-sitters, cousin who works for that big surf apparel company can be a help if you’ve played your cards right.  Talk to anyone and everyone, volunteer, intern and ask tons of questions, so when that rare job opportunity arrives, you have your network in place and you can get your product where it needs to go.

I really believe that if you’re hard working, passionate, determined and patient you can end up with a job you love.  It happened to me once, and it can happen again.  So every time I send off a well thought out, well loved cover letter, I try to keep in mind that it’s not personal and I still let myself get excited every time my phone rings with an unknown number, because I know that’s all it could take to put me in a great new position and end my pro job searching career.