I've been waiting since November 16th for something to say (date of my last post). That is, something that hasn't already been said 100 times by 100 media outlets. That's because no one has any idea what is going on in the economy. No one knows whether the promise of a crush of new litigation work will materialize. No one knows whether the whole game is going to come crashing down around our collective ears. It has not been easy to make revenue forecasts for 2009, I can tell you!The only thing that perhaps should be said is that there is no reason to believe that there is going to be any 'closure' or 'resolution' to the current economic crisis anytime soon. We may muddle along for months in this twilit gray-zone of uncertainty. We may have further gut-punches to our GDP and maybe even some kidney-kicks to our productivity. Regardless, we can't collectively hold our breathe. We have to accept the new uncertainty. In a way, the economic meltdown of 2008 shattered the paradigm of our faith in unending prosperity in a way similar to the crash that 9/11 brought to our paradigm of invulnerability to terrorist or other outside threats to the Nation. We're left with fewer economic and political illusions.
Just another way in which we Americans (and/or all those in all continents living the economic dream) share something in solidarity with those in the 'emerging' world.
Thus, we have no choice but to gird our loins and get to work--even if 'get to work' means 'work at finding work.' We have been graphically reminded that there are no guarantees in life; a lesson all of us could stood to have learned without the object-lesson of the mortgage crisis-turned-global economic meltdown. But there you go.
So, there really is nothing new to say. We have to grin and bear it. Nevertheless, marketing, salesmanship, leadership, professionalism, and skill all still go at a premium. The majority of the competition doesn't exemplify these traits. Since there's much less fluff-room for mediocrity these days, there are still opportunities everywhere. We just have to have faith in ourselves.
