The Unemployed Life

Gigonomics: Exquisite Reinvention

Today I am a solar installer.

After more than 20 years in the publishing business, I’ve decided to completely reinvent myself. My reasons are many. For one, I’m unemployed, so I think it would be nifty to have a job again and, from what I can tell, the solar industry is poised to take off and produce a bunch of jobs. This is especially true with the Obama administration pumping money into the economy and targeting alternative energy development. If you put two and two together (four!), you can see why it makes sense to be a solar installer. Plus, I could get a tan. After years in an interior office, I think a little vitamin D might be nice.

Of course, I don’t know much about solar installations and PV panels and grid tie-ins, but that’s beside the point. I can learn, and I’m motivated. Sure, there’s a fear factor involved, in that I need to do something for income and if I don’t my children will eat floorboards. But there’s also something marvelous occurring, something exquisite. I’m reinventing myself. (See also, the recent story “How a Banker Reinvented Herself.”)

Reinvention is becoming a buzzword of the Great Recession. In one large sense, those of us directly affected by the downturn in the economy are forced to look at various possibilities, and those opportunities may be in industries for which we have little background and training. We have to start over, take rudimentary classes, work menial jobs during the day and study at night, anything we can do to build a new, more relevant resume.

There’s something marvelous occurring, something exquisite. I’m reinventing myself.

I’ve discussed this possibility before in other Recessionwire columns where I’ve pondered becoming a website designer, a zoo manager and now, a solar installer. But my perspective here is not about the mechanics of reinvention. It’s not necessarily about taking classes or obtaining retraining funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. It’s about those lucky folks who will take their job transition as an opportunity to live the dream of a lifetime. Those people who will say to themselves, “Now that I’m in this position, what do I really, really want to do?”

There is increasing evidence that the path to overwhelming success and self-satisfaction comes from an honest answer to that question, “What do I really want to do?” Writing in Forbes.com, Helen Jonsen details the stories of three successful entrepreneurs who didn’t necessarily build careers as much as they uncovered their true passions and let it rip. The article highlights the careers of foodie Paula Deen, textile designer Sigrid Olsen, and PR guru Eric Yaverbaum, each of whom were either forced to or compelled to adapt to challenging circumstances.

A little Google research could probably uncover similar kinds of success stories. But what makes these so relevant for today is not that they are enormously inspirational, but that they characterize a cultural shift in how we define personal aspiration and satisfaction. As painful as the Great Recession has been, it has served to uncover—especially for those who have had to endure being laid off and reduced income—that the world is rich with possibility. If that’s how we choose to see it.

As painful as the Great Recession has been, it has served to uncover that the world is rich with possibility.

Not that we should all go skipping after every gaily colored balloon. But we each contain vital reservoirs of passion, and that our goal should be not so much to find employment as it is to unlock that reservoir and build a professional life in lockstep with our flow of our passions. Now that’s a job.

Writing in her blog, Reinventing Yourself, Connie Regan Green makes the point that when you move towards a specific goal, focusing your passion is extremely important. That’s because when you connect with the energy behind your passion, the actions required—the necessary hard work—comes effortlessly. As it is believed Confucious said, “Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

I’d like to think that all this about following your true passion and unlocking your potential is so much more than platitudinous dandelion fluff intended to placate the restless, scared, and angry unemployed and disenfranchised. The reality is that many of us will take the first job that comes along, and be damn glad we did, too. There’s nothing wrong with that. But some will seize the chance, whether steered to it by the circumstance of an imploded economy or by sheer willpower, to enable their dreams. And that’s a damn lovely notion.

Oh, by the way, tomorrow I’m going to be an astronaut.

Tags: careers, finding a job, Gigonomics, making money, new career, reinvention, work