The toughest part of a prolonged stint in layoff land is the feeling of being devalued. For the most part, I always had faith in my talents and skills but this dark period truly makes a person doubt their own worth.
In essence, most Americans consider their salary to be the most accurate valuation of any human being. In keeping with that logic, a six figure hedge fund manager would be sitting in heaven's VIP section while a minimum wage worker was forced to wait in the line outside the pearly gates behind the high schoolers with fake IDs. Since minimum wage would be a lofty achievement right now, I shudder to think where I would end up in this pecking order. So I cling to the hope that the universe does not work that way.
But I know I am fortunate and lucky be a 24-year-old single male with no mortgage or kids to feed. And I have watched the fortunes of those champagne sipping hedge fund managers decay into nothingness. I have faith in the reiliency of my spirit and of the American economy who showed me to the door a few weeks ago. So does Warren Buffett.
"Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497."
Thanks Warren, I needed that.
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