Kris Rusch talked about Black Swan Events in her latest Business Musings blog yesterday. She discusses both bad decisions and good decisions over the course of her professional life. I suggest you read it.
For those who don't want to read Kris's blog, a Black Swan Event is an unpredictable event that changes the economy whether on a local stage or world wide.
I'm old enough now to have been through a few as an adult. And the irony is that each Black Swan happened in a different profession in my life.
1991 - The First Gulf War.
I worked as a computer consultant for DuPont. I'd moved to the east coast to get the heck out of Ohio. When the war broke out, part of me knew I should be looking for another job. Part of me knew no where in the U.S. was safe from the coming recession. I give DuPont some credit. When they announced one million lay-offs, they got rid of the contract workers like me first and retrained their employees from closed divisions for other jobs within the company.
Unfortunately, DuPont wasn't the only east coast employer laying off workers. I found myself competing with folks from IBM and DEC (they were the two biggest computer companies at the time) with twenty or more years of experience for jobs along the Atlantic states. I finally nailed a position after two months of solid job searching, but it meant moving back to Ohio.
2001 - The Trio
The beginning of the 21st century had not one, but three Black Swan Events. The first was the tech stock/dot.com crash in April. It unfortunately didn't effect just the dot.coms. DH and his partners had sold their consulting company two years prior, and the new conglomerate had planned to go public in May. Needless to say, that didn't happen, and it made DH's stock worthless.
In the meantime, I'd started a solo law practice. That was going well until 9/11. For those of you who remember, I don't have to remind you of the fear and uncertainty of the time.
Finally, there was the collapse of Enron and other corporations who'd overstated their earnings in an effort to keep the price of their stocks propped up. Enron in particular was the final straw in the Houston economy. I had no new clients because no one could afford my services. Even worse, other law firms were laying off attorneys and staff. A couple of months later, my lease expired and I had to pull the plug. The day I moved out of my office, I curled in a ball in my bed once I got home and cried. I tried practicing from my home for a while, but all the leads my friends threw me evaporated.
2008 - The Housing Crash
I'd been hired by a firm in Houston and was back to practicing law until health problems forced me to quit. Once again, I got a part-time job at a local Hallmark to make ends meet. Unfortunately, between my illnesses over 2006 and 2007 and GK needing two surgeries during that time, our money was stretched to the limit. When the crash occurred, the banks jacked up the interest rates on our credit cards to compensate for their loss of income. Stupid move on their part. We ended up defaulting on the credit cards, but thankfully not our house, though we did consult with an attorney concerning bankruptcy. It took us a long time to dig out from that mess. What's funny is that my income from writing erotica is what changed our financial landscape. *grin*
2020 - The COVID-19 Pandemic
After a series of life rolls from 2013 to being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, it took a lot of work in 2019 to get back into the writing and publishing game. I naively thought 2020 would be a breeze. Here we are, two and a half months into the year, and the world has essentially shut down. But that shut down is the only way to stop the spread of the virus.
In a world of chaos, you have to ask yourself, what can you do? What can you control?
In my case, I can control my writing. I have a stockpile of covers. I just need to finish the stories they belong to.
I can stay inside and away from people. The last thing I want to do is spread germs to people who may be even more vulnerable than me.
I can keep in to touch with friends and family who are in the same damn lock-down as I am. E-mails, texts, and phone calls go a long way, even if it's just commiserating with each other.
I throw what little money I have to people who need it. Buy a few covers. Tips for the workers at the carry-out windows. Buy a few books.
I can give Bella some extra cuddles and play time when I need a break. Extra hugs and kisses to DH who's trying very hard to be supportive to his employees and dad right now.
I remind myself that I've survived everything else Murphy, the one true god, has thrown at me.
It's too easy to get lost in the anxiety and fear right now, and to paraphrase Master Yoda, oftentimes that fear turns to hate. We don't know what the world's going to look like once we get to the end of this Black Swan. What we can do is look out for each other and to quote the Doctor, "Always be kind. Never cruel."
