Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Unemployed and Spinning My Wheels



I received this e-mail today after updating my Retirement Quotes Website:


    Subject: Spinning My Wheels

    Dear Ernie,

    Hello from Florida!

    I discovered your great book - The Joy of Not Working - just a few weeks ago. What you have written has been encouragement to my heart.

    I am unemployed. After 18 years with a company, I resigned after enduring a mandated 24x7 on call (no rotation or compensation time provided) during the past two years; I felt like I was being leased out to my family - exploited. I stressed and simply "burned out". I am 51. My father-in-law took my aside and let me know what a "dumb ass" thing I had done - leaving a job without having another one to go to. I let him know - with tears in my eyes - that if I could have hung in there any longer - I would have. I had been looking for other work, but nothing opened up. This was in the corporate IT infrastructure department. Surprisingly, the unemployment office accepted my reason; they did not receive any feedback from my ex-employer. TODAY I received a letter than my employer is appealing - so I have to participate in a telephone hearing on June 16th to try to continue receiving benefits. If not in my favor, they would attempt to recover the benefits received thus far (about $1000). What a mess. I just feel like crying. I am married and two of my sons Paul (16) and Joseph (19) are here with us at home.

    I've been applying for work every day (and night); seriously considering self employment rather than continuing to wait in hopes someone will hire me. Rather make something happen, than wait for someone to maybe, maybe, please, please consider hiring me. I do not want to return to the corporate cube farm. I don't want to react/panic to my present situation and return to the same personal hell I had to leave.

    I have a blog:

    Nothing fancy. I've tried to monetize. No big hits. I love to write (some people have expressed enjoying my writings) and also to be of service to others. (I'm even taking a two week Certified Nursing Assistant prep course to see if something will open up!)

    Please pardon my rambling ... I know you have been there and have received many messages from people just like me. I guess I really needed to reach out to someone who understands.

    I enjoy visiting your site and always learn something there or on your facebook post.

    I really DO want to follow in your footsteps and experience the Joy of NOT Working. I just feel stuck, spinning my wheels.

    God Bless and all the best!

    W. B.
This was my reply:


    Hello W.B.:

    First, I sympathize with your situation as being unemployed can be distressing.

    I realize that there are many Americans and Canadians in your situation today.

    I can't offer any work to you as I work by myself and usually outsource specific projects such as webdesign on Elance.com.

    Regarding self-employment, this is not easy but it can be a great way to make a living for the right people.

    But this takes committment and a willingness to live a simple lifestyle for a year to 5 or 10 years - although some people can start making money fairly quickly, particularly on the Internet.

    You mention that you started a blog on Facebook and tried to monetize it.

    In my opinion, a Facebook blog is not the way to make money.

    According to the experts, Wordpress is the best way to start a blog.

    There is still as much opportunity - probably more - today as there has ever been to make money on the Internet.

    In fact, I am just starting and my goal is to make over one million dollars in the next few years.

    But as John Reese, an Internet millionaire, says, "Your goal should first be to make one dollar, then $100, then $500 and so on." The problem with 98 percent of the people is they want to make a lot of money instantly and are not prepared to put in the required effort.

    I will send you some e-books on Internet Marketing and writing.

    Below is an e-mail that I recently got from a woman and my response to her.

    Some of my advice may be helpful to you if you are considering being a writer and self-publishing.

        Hello Helen:


          First regarding self-publishing, I don't care about the stigma. Most of the people who run down self-publishing are unsuccessful writers who think of themselves as being so cool. But most of them are losers who are broke. I would rather be nerdy and rich than cool and broke.

          Remember that my retirement book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is self-published. This book has already sold over 120,000 copies and has been published in 8 foreign languages since it was released. The book has made over $400,000 in pretax profits for me.

          Conduct a search for "retirement" or "retire" on www.Amazon.com and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position. Better still, search for "retirement book" in Google and the Amazon page for How to Retire Happy appears in the number 1 spot — out of over 29 million webpages!

          So why does my self-published book beat out all the other retirement books, including retirement books by AARP, the Wall Street Journal, and Ten Speed Press's What Color Is Your Parachute for Retirement? The answer is that my self-published book is better than all the other retirement books done by the major publishers. Results don't lie.

          I intend to sell 500,000 copies of this book and I sure wouldn't be able to do this with the thinking patterns, beliefs, and behaviors of the "cool" writers who run down self-publishing.

          Interestingly, I just read an article by some expert who claimed that in the near future the major publishers may be eliminated from the chain because authors will deal with the online retailers directly, particularly for e-books.

          If you want to pursue self-publishing, check out these articles.

          In the first article, pay particular attention to my comment in the comments section. My comment is the first one.

          http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zetta-elliott/breaking-down-doors-my-se_b_473336.html







          You bring up the issue of e-books. At this time, I not a big fan of e-books. If you check out the competition for my How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, most retirement books are on Kindle and in many other e-book formats.

          The only e-book format that you find for my retirement book is a PDF format of half the book that I give away for free.

          I don't think that there are great profit margins in e-books right now.

          I just came across an article the other day saying that the top 14 best-selling books for the Kindle on Amazon were the ones that were for free.

          Having said that, if you want to put any of your books in e-book format, check out Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/.

          Smashwords will put your books in all e-book formats including Kindle and you will even get more in Amazon royalties by going through Smashwords than going directly to Amazon.com.

          I will forward an e-mail that I just sent to a woman who asked me about the opportunities for writing in this day and age.


        So long for now,

        Ernie J. Zelinski
        The Creativity Guy Too Prosperous to Do Mornings
        Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Content Creator for Retirement Resources
        Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
        (Over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
        and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
        (Over 240,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)
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      Sunday, November 8, 2009

      Job Loss Is a Golden Opportunity


      Here is an e-mail that I recently received from a reader of one of my books. I have changed the person's name in case the information is sensitive:


        ----- Original Message -----
        From: Sharon P.
        To: ernie @ telus dot net
        Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 4:58 PM
        Subject: one response to The Joy of Not Working

        Hello, Ernie!

        Another co-worker and I had the great good fortune of being laid off at the end of June. We decided that we were the lucky ones. Only after we were out of the negative work environment did we realize how much stress we had been carrying and how exhausted we were. It took a couple of weeks of rest, good nutrition, and tender loving care from friends before I felt human again and didn't ache all over. Plus it took a while to file for unemployment benefits and to get back to the job-hunting game.

        Once I was done with all the paperwork hassle, I picked up a few books to read in between doing housework and sending out resumes. I started with Michael Shuman's books, The Small-Mart Revolution and Going Local (I was curious about how to sustain local economies), then proceeded with Robert Fritz's The Path of Least Resistance (how to apply creative techniques that artists use to living my own life). After that, I picked up your book, The Joy of Not Working.

        I am about halfway through the book and yesterday I finished my first leisure tree. Wanting more bang for my buck, I made a game out of trying to combine as many things as I could from the tree into a single day, and I made a game plan over morning coffee. I am interested in horses, I want to learn to ride dressage, I enjoy reading and writing and walking/hiking, and I need to exercise (both for health and to be a better rider). So I combined those things and created "dressage Monday" -- which of course I won't just be doing on Mondays, but I had to start somewhere, right? Here's how it went:

        breakfast

        Read: articles on riding in Dressage Today magazine
        Exercise: yoga - full set, for at least 20 minutes
        drink a full glass of water
        Exercise: leg stretches, using a step in the kitchen

        break for lunch

        Reading: three chapters of the book Balance in Movement (applying physiotherapy to achieve a proper seat on the horse)
        Exercise: walking my elderly dog to the local post box, to post greeting cards (I decided to send the cards so that I would have to walk to the post box today!)
        Watching: video of dressage training by Reiner Klimke
        Watching: gold medal performance by Reiner Klimke in 1984 Los Angeles olympic games (on YouTube)
        Exercise: 15 minutes on rebounder (mini trampouline)

        break for a drink and a snack

        reading: more articles in Dressage Today magazine
        writing: sending a long email to Ernie J. Zelinski

        It's a little after 6 pm now (I'm in Ohio, on Eastern time), and I still have plenty of time to do other things, like more reading and some weight training in the evening.

        Exercise had been a problem for me in the past. I had so much tension in my body that it hurt even to do yoga! But now that I am not in a negative job situation, I find that exercise is very easy. Not only does it not hurt, but it is more meaningful because I have a specific goal in mind: strengthening my body to be able to balance better when I am riding and to ride for longer periods of time. I think that having a goal for exercise is a huge thing. For me, lack of exercise wasn't because of taking the easy way out, it was because I was in pain and also because I didn't have a specific purpose or goal for it.

        Now that I am coordinating my activities for a common purpose, everything is incredibly easy to start and easy to continue through to the end (reading three chapters of a book, doing 15 minutes of rebounding, etc.). My day has been joyful and effortless and full of activity!

        It all started when I decided to start training and studying like an olympian, since I no longer have that pesky full-time job.

        Living in the USA, however, I am concerned about the fact that I will only be able to keep my health insurance for nine months. I will try to find a paying gig with benefits before then, but in the meantime I will be making huge progress in my riding, and the exercise and learning will be building my confidence for whatever I will choose to do down the road. In order to keep my horse, my husband and I have been cleaning stalls and helping to care for horses in exchange for my horse's board. Plus, my riding coach wants a website, and he will give me some free lessons in exchange for website development and writing, which we will be glad to do for him. You cannot imagine what a relief it is for me to be able to keep my horse, I've had him for nearly six years, and he's a member of the family. It's also a big relief to still have lessons from a great coach; my friend and I just found out about him last winter, and I'd hate to lose him, too!

        I am very grateful for your book, to show me how to give my life a specific direction and to re-frame my job loss as a golden opportunity.

        One thing that I have to thank you for specifically is for mentioning reading as an activity that is active. I had been kicking myself for sitting around and reading -- even though I was learning a lot through my reading and the Fritz book was about a technique that would help me through life and help me find meaningful work -- because I saw it as passive. I was incredibly relieved when I saw reading on your leisure tree! I put it on mine as well, and now I can actually feel good about the reading I am doing, and that is another huge weight off my shoulders.

        My time between jobs will not be a worrisome time for me, because I am now a woman on a mission and I am test-driving the life I will live the next time I am between jobs. It is and will be a joyful life full of self-directed learning and exploring.

        Even when I am once again working at a job, I'll have a better idea of how to manage my time in the future. I will continue to be an olympian-in-training even while working 40 hours a week and planning how I can create my own business, so I will eventually be able to rid myself of the next pesky full-time job that I happen to acquire.

        All the best,
        Sharon P.
      Here are some resources to deal with job loss, unemployment, and involuntary retirement:

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      Thursday, June 19, 2008

      Another E-Mail about The Joy of Not Working

      I received this e-mail from Zain Fazal:


        Dear Mr. Zelinski,

        I had just completed reading your book The Joy of Not Working and I must say, I am very relieved to know they're people out there who think like you do. The work ethic is modern day North America has always bothered me. I have seen what workaholics has done to family, friends I came to the conclusion a long time ago that this can't be as good as it gets there has to be more to life then work.

        Every job I had has made me miserable (factory worker, donut fryer, warehouse worker, etc.) once I found out I didn't like a job. I quit right away. Because of this I face ridicule from my family and friends who believe they are some sort of martyrs by working 10-12 hours a day or working on weekends it drives me crazy when people think like this.

        After reading The Joy of Not Working I am happy that I'm not the only one who thinks way! Your book is insightful, clever and witty, I. am going to be graduating from college with a diploma in Tourism and travel from Mohawk College. However in between looking for a job, I plan to do a bit of creative loafing of my own. I plan to learn to drive; learn to swim, among other things. Thank you for letting me know it's OK to not work hard and it's OK not to conform.

        (I especially love the chapter regarding GNP) I only wish you had included the reply to the one negative letter that was sent to you about The Joy of Not Working .

        Best regards,

        Zain Fazal
        Kitchener, Ontario


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