Act Like a Start-up: Ride out The Recession, But Don't Get Too Comfortable

Employees who do well, follow the lead of the better companies in a recession. The better companies refocus on their strategy, cut out as much fat as possible, make certain that their alignment is focused on their strategy, rethink their competitors strengths and their competitors strategy and advantages, focus on their customers and continue working on long term relations.

Just so, smart employees refocus on their job objectives, use their time even more effectively, pay close attention to their contributions to the organization, and pay a lot of attention to their clients. Their clients are the boss, their peers, their subordinates (if they have them), and even internal clients. AND, they keep developing and working their network. They want organizational intelligence, competent mentoring and training, and they keep an external network going so they'll know what's happening to other firms and competitors, and what changes their firm might have to make. With all this information, a recession is a fine time to focus on skill/competency development. What skills do you need to fine-tune? What additional competency will make possible a stretch opportunity in the future? How does your career strategy look in this recession and long term?

Great article Ryan! I feel this way too! We need to grunt out the jobs we don't like for as long as the economy is really bad and keep building and brainstorming our startups until the time is right. You wrote exactly what I've been thinking!

This recession is being overblown by the media and the news coverage the financial crisis is realy although it is only affecting a small portion of the population.
Many people are still working and collecting paychecks, some companies are thriving. Why else would WalMart have an increase in sales.
People tell themselves a story that a recession is looming, although it is not anyway near there industry, so we have to "Tighten our belts".
Most americans will keep there jobs, many americans will thrive during and after this recession.
I agree hunkering down and emerging even better after this wave hits many start ups will emerge triumphantly. The focus on Gen-Y emerging with a greater dedication for meaningful work will come true only if the Gen_Y generation tells itself a story that this is what we deserve.
We are the mask we were.

I don't know how anyone can argue that we are not in a recession – have you looked at unemployment numbers? Your 401K? Have you asked your parents about how many 100s of thousands of dollars they've lost in their 401K, investments and house value? Do you work in NYC? Do you know anyone who does? Living in NYC, the question isn't what do you do for work but are you currently working?

I think that the recession (in ten years maybe we'll look back and call it a depression) is going to be a major positive factor in our generation's ability to wake up and get it right. I think that if you look at our grandparents generation, many of whom lived through the Great Depression, or who's parent's did, you see a more "hardcore" generation than any other in American history. They work hard, were fiscally responsible and not superficial, valued the family, were open to change but patriotic – this is the American attitude we need going forward to remain the powerhouse of the world. Our parents generation with all their hippy bs, free love, open drug use really took this country down the wrong path over the past 40 years. They were a generation of greed (as we see, they are the ones in charge of the entire economic crisis, greed begets greed), they are superficial, don't value family (think about the divorce rate skyrocketing for their generation), see nothing wrong with drug use (it's one thing to experiment, it's another thing to condone using), and AIDS is an epidemic that came out of the free love generation of openness.

What I hope happens is that our generation rebells against our parents generation because of the debacle they've left us to clean up. Every asset from stocks to real estate are overvalued because of zealous greedy people who constantly were pumping them up, people were taking mortgages that they obviously couldn't afford, the credit card boom has made most families in debt – rather than have a savings account. I hope that our generation looks at this as a lesson in the importance in paying off debt and saving, only buying what we can afford, giving less credence to superficial and trivial material items and more credence to the value of good, trustworthy family, friends and business partners. I think this really is the wake up call our country needed to get us back on the right path. As new graduates many people are facing tough times either not finding a job or getting laid off. This will teach our generation to save, to live within our means, to valuing a job and paycheck, and looking to enjoy the less superficial and free things in our lives.

Thanks for the comments! Michael, I'm sorry but I have to completely disagree. This recession is not being overblown. How we have lived for the past decade plus has officially taken its toll and now we all have to deal with the shit storm we've been dealt. I actually said the same about the recession being overblown up until a month ago. But it is slowly affecting friends, family and now me.

I checked out my 401K that I had left over from IBM, and it was down 50%. Luckily, I was only there for over a year and didn't make enough to save a lot, but I can't imagine being 60 years old, close to reitrement, and looking at my life savings being cut in half. That said, I still have faith that as a country we will emerge better than ever.

Jen, you're right our parents generation did leave us with a lot to clean up, and in many ways, I do think we will rebel against them. But, undoubtedly we will adopt many of their same habits. Hopefully, we rebel against the bad habits and pick up the good ones

Amen Ryan. Amen. Out of chaos comes opportunity. I trade currencies for a living and left my firm in April 07, just before the you know what hit the fan in just about every market on the planet. I've been trading my own money since then, which means I own 100% of the risk and most of the reward. Much like most entrepreneurs. It's funny, but my first reaction when Lehman went bankrupt was: "See. Nobody is safe" Do you think Gen Yers at Lehman ever thought their firm would go belly up? Not likely. I've always excepted that there are no guarantees in life. Even if you're not an entrepreneur, you are the only one looking out for your career. I've worked for great companies and companies that went bankrupt, but have always looked at my career as a company that I need to manage.

Well, I'll take the middle of the road approach; the economy is not as bad as the media tells us, but it still is in the toilet! I own my a business and just lost my biggest customer yesterday, due to the economy. However, that leaves me with some extra capacity the I can attempt to market to someone else. I totally agree that this is a time for working on improving our businesses, careers, and life in general so that when we come out of these challenging times, and we will come out of them, we will be stronger, better, and ready to ride the next wave. Let's support each other and hang in there.

Well said, Ryan. Take the job, even if you don't like it – nobody can afford to be choosy in this economy. Buckle down, bite the bullet and do it, and look to further education so that when we do come out of this, you stand a stronger chance of doing what you'd love to do, rather than what you have to do.