I was leaving Oxford on that crisp fall evening. The whole world was at Ole Miss to cover the Presidential Debate; and I was heading away from the center of the media-hype universe. The sky was blue and traffic was light on I-55 south. Bored, I turned on the radio to keep me awake. What I heard put a chill in my heart: The economy was melting down. The paper market, how businesses and banks get credit, was freezing up. The world’s economy was teetering on a cliff. The Mississippi countryside looked so peaceful and yet the whole world was about to fall to pieces. I was awake alright.
Not sure that was the beginning of the change we’re experiencing, but it’s a moment that sticks in my mind. Some people say it all happened after 9/11. Others mention the housing crisis and the run up in fuel prices in 2008. Whatever the case, life hasn’t been the same since the Great Recession began.
I remember someone sent me a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese,” in the early 2000’s. I read it, noted the cute tale and didn’t allow a single ounce of the lesson to sink into my head. The book, if you don’t know, is about mice who find that their cheese is vanishing and how they react to it. I guess at that point, I was the mouse who had his head buried in the sand. My cheese was disappearing and I wasn’t doing much about it. I thought my hard work and accomplishments had guaranteed a secure future. I was wrong.
And I wasn’t alone.
The Great Recession caught many of us flatfooted. Corporations did what businesses do to remain profitable; massive layoffs soon followed. Whole industries were changed forever. Small business owners scrambled to save their companies. Workers, who found their cheese gone, scrambled to reinvent themselves. Others hung onto to their jobs for dear life. And some just gave up.
The last four years have been stressful, joyful, painful, fearful and hopeful. I think historians will look back at this time and say it was as big of a societal change as the Industrial Revolution. The middle class, in particular, has taken it on the chin. Whole industries are about to go the way of the dinosaur. Look up, that’s a comet you see heading toward your world.
It’s time to get busy.
Wishful thinking won’t get it done. Longing for the good ol’ days won’t either. It’s time to try new things daily. Throw things against the wall and see what sticks. And don’t fall in love with every new thing you try. You have to learn how to fail. If something doesn’t work, cut it loose without mercy. Put your heart into your work and learn to smile. You’re alive and still in the fight.
I spoke to a small business owner who owns one of the best businesses of his type in the nation. It is right here in Jackson and is feeling some of the same pressures as the newspaper industry. Technology has changed how his customers consume what he sells. But he isn’t giving up. And he isn’t whining. He’s reinventing his business on the fly. He’s providing amazing customer service. He’s changing right before his own eyes. The pressure of the economy is turning a fine piece of coal into a diamond.
While I can’t speak for the rest of the world, I think the Great Recession will end up changing my life for the better. Why? Because I’ve learned that I am capable of doing things I never knew I could before it happened. The biggest blessing is getting nudged out of my comfort zone. I’ve always heard that necessity is the mother of invention. I agree — the last four years have been a mother. But the invention will end up being glorious.
