I remember when I decided to move to Australia in late 2004 with no job ready at hand. It was one of the most awful period, not just because I had no job or income, but because the time is there and I was not prepared to fill my time.

Fast foward to today, many of us -at the moment- maybe in between jobs. Be it out of job because we decided to, or out of job because we were forced to. Whichever your situation is, being unemployed (or out of business) is never been feel good.

Flashback again ... during the time that I was jobless, I keep searching around for possible work, any work. I even thought of applying a night shift job, early morning newspaper boy, the post guy delivering mail, stuffing mail and sending junk mail to people, even to the extreme of doing cleaning service. Lucky enough, it was remained a thought as I was chicken enough to step into that condition, and also confident enough that I will get the good starting job based on what I have -> ah ha ... "based on what I have".

Now, here is the idea: what do you have at the moment that will enable you to move on with your life, especially when you are jobless at the moment?

I believe more people stuck in the 'reality' that once they are jobless, they 'have' (or to be precise 'must') find a job in order to make money and start doing business that they dreamed of. The question is: didn't you say the same thing when you are looking for a job for the first time after you graduated or out of school? Now, what happened with that dream, that precious goal(s) that you set when you were 'young'? ... and now you are back to square one of 'dreaming' and setting the 'goal', only to find out that one day in the future you will be out of job again?

Maybe I can write this because I have job at hand, someone employed me, or because I am currently not unemployed. I admit it is true. Otherwise I could end up in two possible condition:

1. I shutdown this website, because out of money while looking for job
2. I shutdown this website, because I put my money to work for my business

Now back to the idea of what do you have at the moment that will bring you to the next level? Money is not the only answer!

I got my answer based on my skills, experience and knowledge. I knew that I know numerous things about computer, technology, gadgets, tools, etc. I knew that I had some teaching experience in the past. I knew that I have been exposed in the customer facing environment; and I also knew that I could start a business with a very minimum amount of capital (or none at that time).

Those haves that I have actually applies to you folks as well! It is only a matter of you taking the steps in putting it into action (or at least make a plan and do it!)

I once learned about several types of people's personalities (remember one theory about sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic?).What I found (and what I experienced as well), somehow people turned into melancholic + phlegmatic once something 'bad' hit their usual life. i.e.: out of job, out of business, losing something, etc. People (and as human in general), tend to step back and sit into the 'darkness' thinking of 'why'.

Why this happen to me, why I lost my business, why my boss let me go, and tons of whys that will only benefited if you learned from it and apply the failsafe mechanism to prevent similar future happening. 

There is also people that 'change lane', thinking that "ah, I have been in this field for a long time. It is time to start something new, something fresh, etc." Ironically, quite a number of us that have that thought end up in the same lane again

Surprisingly (and not so surprising for me), people that decided to do the 'how to ...' is the one that managed to move ahead before they 'why-s' folks. There are a lot of references about this: if you ask yourself 'how to ...', or 'how do I ...', your brain was indirectly 'forced' to find a solution. If you ask youurself 'why ...', you brain was only instructed to find an answer (or answers). Once you found the answer, so what? (and ironically, this 'so what' thing is also another good friend of 'why')

There is also a better idea, if you combined they 'why' to get your millions of reason, put the 'how to' into plan and YOU executed it, then YOU will be the one benefiting it. Not your family, not your friend, not even anyone else on earth. (even though if YOU make a great impact, it will affect other people as well)

So folks, it is good that you are now employed, unemployed, running a business (or businesses), or even out of business. This time may be the best time for you to reflect on the 'why' and start planning (how to ...) for your future venture.

If you said you now want to move into employment again, then write up your resume. Ask your friend's opinion about your resume (or if you can afford it, use the resume advisor and pay them for their advise).

If you said you now want to start your business, then do it. You now have all the time that you ever wanted right? Then write up all your skills, experience, knowledge, and interest in order to find the possible business that you may be interested doing for your living. Hey, most business that exist today was because the owner enjoy doing it and enjoy living by doing what they like. Business that closes down are mainly because the owner doesn't feel like doing their business anymore and yet persistent enough to hold on to their 'hated' business (ha!)

If you said you now want to continue study, then start looking for possible courses that will be your stepping stone into the other two decision above. Even becoming and artist could be a decision too! (Hey, an artist is a good business person as they are the one knowing their business' best interest, but hopefully they don't turned into insane artist that ... you know ... insane But this is subjective and I am not discussing this here now)

Folks, the current down turn time is actually the best timing for you to really start something new.

Hope to see you all prosper in the future with whatever decision that you made today.

Note: I am also need to put my own action, otherwise I will be obsolete and out of my league.

Keep the spirits high folks!!!!