You're It, A Valuable Resource

So you've lost your high-paying job in a manufacturing industry. The company is down-sizing. It has opened new plants in Indonesia and Mexico. The Canadians have captured a third of the market with subsidized products under the North American free trade agreement. The Japanese are hanging in there although their stuff isn't all that cheap any more. The unions can't seem to help. The government is obviously not doing its job. It should do something. Put up tariffs. Set import quotas. Something!

If that's how you see things, it's only going to get much worse. And if your government does do something, it will get even worse, only later. The above are symptoms and if you treat only symptoms, you may find yourself really sick very quickly. The cause behind these symptoms is that it just takes less and less labour to produce things and, if this is a disease, there is no cure.

But there's another way of looking at the situation. You're a resource which is no longer needed where it was. But you, as a resource, are worth something. You know things and have had experience. If you don't feel it's enough, build on it with further training. You will no longer have a job which you have to do in order to make money; you'll offer your abilities somewhere where they're needed and be compensated according to the contribution that you make.

You need to find a group which needs what you can do. This can be on a national scale or in your neighbourhood. Look for a group whose goal is to do whatever it wants to do really well. Whatever it is, you'll be competing world-wide. And, if the group is a small, flexible, partnership, ie. a small business, then your chances for success are good.

The key to the whole thing is the individual as a valuable resource and the only one who can make yourself into one is you.

FIRST PUBLISHED AT SUITE101.COM