I Refuse To Participate in a Recession

Mindset is everything. If you believe things are bad, they will be. If you don't, they might not be.

You can whine about recessions. Or you can get out of bed and make things happen.

Years ago (circa 2008), I had gotten laid off from my job as a marketing director of a home building company. Like almost everybody else working at any company even tangentially related to real estate, I lost my job after hanging onto it desperately for months as we all saw the industry crashing and burning.

Even though I woke up unemployed, I didn’t fall prey to the doom-and-gloom naysayers all over the TV and radio (yes, I listened to those back then). I hated how everybody was screaming “fire” and panicking like we were all on a sinking ship.

Things were bad, yes. I had just bought a house for the first time in my life, and my wife had just given birth to our third child. I was even laid off right before Thanksgiving. It was not a fun time.

But I couldn’t understand all the random strangers on the internet, and even some people I knew almost voyeuristically saying so much crap:

• “It’s a recession!”

• “It’s a GREAT recession!”

• “It’s the worst recession we’ve had since the Great Depression!”

• “It’s the NEXT Great Depression.”

Wahhh…. boohoo… Lame! Boring! Too dumb for me to even pay attention to.

I had no interest in that. I didn’t want to hear any of that and didn’t even want to be around people who talked that way.

I wasn’t going to sit around at home, collecting unemployment benefits and whining about how bad my life was, how bad the market was, or how bad the world economy was. Who has time for that?

Instead, I started my own website design company and went into business for myself. I joined a business networking group and met with local businesses every Thursday morning at 6:45 am, shaking hands, exchanging business cards, drinking coffee, and drumming up business.

It worked. I started getting clients. I started making money. I was now able to pay some (if not all) of my bills.

After a few weeks, I took some money and decided to spend it somewhat frivolously while proving my commitment to not buying into the fearmongering I was hearing everywhere.

I found a local print shop and hired them to make some custom bumper stickers with an American flag that said: “I Refuse To Participate in a Recession” on them. I put one on my car and one on my wife’s van.

I also sold the rest for a small profit, mostly to fellow business owners in my networking group.

The results of a small decision like this were amazing.

Every single day, when I woke up and went out to my car to drive to work events, I was reminded of my commitment to not panic and just keep moving forward with a positive attitude.

Not only that, but people also—total strangers—would sometimes honk at me, smiling and waving. Sometimes, they’d see my car in a parking lot, point at the sticker, and say: “Right on!”

One woman even left a note on my windshield that said: “BEST BUMPER STICKER EVER!”

It was great to be rebellious and publicly state out loud, to myself, to the politicians, to the pundits, and to the negative naysayers who just love wallowing in doom and negativity that I wasn’t buying it.

I kept that sticker on my car until I sold my car. And I sold my car, because I made enough money that I could afford a nicer one.

Why? Because I refused to participate in a recession.

I got up every day, ignored the whiners, and did the work. By not believing in a recession, I was able to get through it, almost as though it didn’t exist.

It’s pretty simple, really.

And by the way, another recession may be looming even as I write this. I’m older, crankier, and more cynical this time around, and a lot angrier at the idiots in charge who keep causing this mayhem in the first place. So, I may throw a few verbal grenades at the fools who keep breaking things, but one fact still remains…

I still refuse to participate in a recession.

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