Your Losing Streak

(Upcoming book: Adapting! Things I Learned from Unemployment)

Everyone goes through tough times. Don’t care how rich, how famous or how ordinary you are. You are not alone. Everyone has hard times.

Being unemployed is tough. You lost your routine. Lost the place you went everyday. Lost the people you saw and enjoyed everyday are gone. You no longer have enough money to go buy your wants, or even needs.  You don’t even know what to do with yourself today. What are you going to do later?

In today’s economy you can be out of work for months or years.  I know from experience.

You can feel confused, frustrated, angry, lost

… or all the above and more.

It is truly a difficult experience.

Understand you are not the first. You are not alone. Go find support. Realize people do care about you, and use their strength to keep going. Experience unlimited, church, temple, mosque and religious groups are wonderful.

Believe in yourself and set out to help someone else. This is the key to success.

Know you will eventually find work. Not always what you want, nor as much as you would like to earn.  You may have to start over, and that is not always a bad thing.

Why should you believe in yourself? Truthfully you have had more successes than you remember. Every year or two you had a success you participated in. Not by yourself, but one you participated in with a team.

Your contributions matter then, now, and in the future. We need you to succeed.

So step one is going through your work, schooling and volunteering. Find those successes. What is the definition of a success? “Anything you think that was a success.” Do not make this hard.

What purpose is this for? You are going to figure out what talents and skills you have. These transferable skills are what employers want.

You have to show your personal value proposition to employers. Same thing entrepreneurs have to do with their customers, you have to do too.

Then look at each success and break it down. What was the situation or problem? What did your team do, and what was your contribution? Write these stories down.

Then estimate, calculate or take a swag at how much $, %, # or time was earned or saved. Don’t exaggerate, but do your best. Remember dollars is the language of business.

These are the stories you are going to tell during your interviews. When they ask have you done this?  You answer. “Not exactly, but I have done something similar with your story. Practice telling these stories out loud, and the more you do it the better you become.

Get started, figure out your skills and the value you have to offer.  We want and need you to succeed. Really.