| | | | | in growing and adapting: I was a stage actor in |
| Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone Now To Reduce | | | | my twenties, and while I was never a star, I was |
| Discomfort Later | | | | a pretty good contributor to the professional |
| by Michael D. Hume, M.S. | | | | shows I had the privilege of doing. I had the talent |
| The economy is showing scary signs. It's going to | | | | (mostly singing) to land the jobs, but my "brand" |
| get worse before it gets better, and our | | | | was around being a steady, reliable worker in a |
| generation may have to deal with the sort of | | | | business that attracts (let's face it) a fair number |
| privations and difficulties faced by our | | | | of flaky people. Mine was a brand that really |
| grandparents and great-grandparents in the Great | | | | stood out. For instance, I was never late, I took |
| Depression of the 1930s; I only hope it isn't even | | | | great care of my costumes and props, and |
| worse. Are you ready? | | | | mainly I disciplined myself to show up to the first |
| Seriously: what if the stock market is trading at | | | | rehearsal of every show with every line and lyric |
| 3000 or lower within a year or two? What if | | | | memorized (this is called being "off-book," and |
| unemployment doesn't go down from our current | | | | most performers don't get there until several |
| level around ten percent, but instead, doubles? | | | | days or weeks into the rehearsal period). |
| What if inflation starts to roar, and hyper-inflation | | | | One time I was between acting jobs, still working |
| (the fabled million-dollar-loaf-of-bread) starts to | | | | my day job at the newspaper, when I got a call |
| look possible in the United States? Are you | | | | from a local director who was doing an improv |
| ready? | | | | comedy show and needed to replace a departing |
| Here are two suggestions: start and grow a | | | | actor. Of course, an improv show doesn't have a |
| business, and get yourself a real financial | | | | "book" from which you can be "off," so the whole |
| education. The former will provide you with a | | | | notion scared me to death. I told him that |
| more reliable income stream than sitting around | | | | probably wasn't my thing. He said he knew I'd be |
| waiting for someone else to provide or protect | | | | great at it, that my comedic... |
| your income in tough times; the latter will give | | | | ... timing was awesome. |
| you a chance to be one of the one percent of | | | | "Really, John," I said, "I don't think so. I don't do |
| people who are going to thrive and actually make | | | | improv. I'm a book actor." |
| money during the next Great Depression. | | | | "It pays forty bucks." |
| If you're comfortable in your job, that's great. | | | | "What time did you need me to come by?" |
| Don't quit. But discomfort is coming (possibly even | | | | So I tried this show, and instead of learning the |
| disaster), so you should think about getting a bit | | | | show from a script, I had to learn it by just |
| out of your comfort zone now to avoid being | | | | watching another guy do it for a couple of |
| forcibly thrown from it later. It may make you | | | | performances and then jumping in the next night. |
| uncomfortable to think about starting a business, | | | | It turns out I was a hit. But what I found out was |
| for instance. But today, you can start an internet | | | | that all the experience I had learning shows from |
| business with far less investment of time and | | | | books had taught me how to quickly learn a |
| money than you would've had to pony up to | | | | show, and a good deal of that experience |
| start a conventional business even a few years | | | | transferred to learning a show quickly in a |
| ago. And a real financial education might make you | | | | different way. |
| edgy, too; you'll have to make decisions and | | | | You have a ton of experiences in your life for |
| investments that your friends and neighbors | | | | which you don't give yourself "credit." Those |
| wouldn't. That's because your friends and | | | | experiences, however seemingly unrelated, are |
| neighbors are placing their bets on "others" (their | | | | going to help you weather the coming storm. |
| employers, their spouses, the government) to | | | | They're going to give you your own unique |
| keep the steady paychecks rolling in... and you're | | | | perspective, your own special way of creating a |
| going to have to bet on yourself. Your friends and | | | | business that can sustain you, or of devising an |
| neighbors will end up in the 99 percent who are | | | | investment strategy with which you can thrive in |
| about to be removed from their comfort zones | | | | a very-different economic environment. |
| by force. | | | | But get moving. You don't want to be sitting |
| I know, it sounds gloomy. But the message of | | | | there in a year wishing you'd done something to |
| hope and inspiration here is that you CAN do | | | | prevent the catastrophe around you. Maybe you |
| something about it, if you capture the | | | | don't know computers. Maybe you don't know |
| entrepreneurial spirit within you and get to work | | | | sales. Maybe you've never even tried to invest in |
| preparing for the coming storm. You can learn. | | | | the stock market, or anywhere else. But all the |
| You can adapt. You can grow. | | | | dragons you've slain in your life have taught you |
| I have a friend who is teaching himself to become | | | | how to slay dragons... your past is littered with |
| a salesperson - and a good one - after years of | | | | their dead, defeated bodies. This is just one more |
| running a printing press (not the same type of | | | | dragon. Trust yourself. You will learn what you |
| work at all). | | | | need to learn, do what you need to do, and you |
| A brief personal story about an early lesson I got | | | | can beat this. |