This is not a political piece. Well, it’s unpolitical as much as any can be said to be about anything written in our post-fact, accusation-as-condemnation and everything-is-emotionally-charged world. Some facts do remain while others are opinions, yet the truth, it would appear, is in the eye of the beholder. It’s hard not to get political in such a climate, but I just wanted to look back on the last eight years, which were for me, and many other entrepreneurs, pretty fruitful.
So, I will stay away from politics except for raging against the Mayans for convincing me the world was going to end five Decembers ago, which naturally prompted me to borrow six figures from Joey “The Mackeral” MacInosh at usurious vig because, well, I reasoned that once the world ended I would finally be debt free.
Let’s go back in time.
Just a little over eight years ago, the U.S. was plunged into an abyss that’s been dubbed the Great Recession. Great, as in really, really awful; not great, as in I just put on a pair of jeans from the dryer and found $20 in the pocket. Wallstreet was bailed out and even the once mighty “Big 3” automakers needed a loan to stay a float. Well, except for Ford that neither asked for or needed a loan, and for Chrysler because it’s tough to argue that it was still one of the “Big 3.”
My clients cancelled contracts, prospects dried up, and on October 15, 2010, I was summarily dismissed from a company for which I had busted my hump for nine, often grueling and torturous years. (OK: anyone who worked for me there just laughed at me so hard they sprayed iced tea out their noses.)
But, I was unemployed for a mere six weeks. Actually, I was offered a job the Monday after Thanksgiving and was told to report for work after the first of the year. There, I helped to found Rockford Greene International, a company a friend had incorporated just a couple of months earlier. During those six weeks, I was busy with small contracts, but ones big enough to pay for Rockford Greene International’s initial start up expenses.
We launch into uncertain seas.
Things looked grim when an inexperienced senator from Illinois won…