A Bad Economy Is the Perfect Time to Start Over

My first six months in Wisconsin were interesting to say the least. Ryan Paugh and I lived on $1,000 a month in a beat up old house on the East Side of Madison. We worked from home, we rarely went out, we fought with each other, we fought with Penelope, and we watched the snow pile up on the cold Wisconsin ground month after month.

By all accounts, it was pretty terrible. I was used to having lots of friends, going out all the time, and counting on a good paycheck to come in every other week.

But then we raised some money. We took bonuses, we got regular paychecks, we hired people, we rented an office, and I moved in to a nice place with my brother and bought a flat screen TV. It was great. It was comfortable.

It was boring.

Any true entrepreneur will tell you that the best time in the life of a start up is the beginning. You work tons of hours and you can't wait until you're funded because that's when you'll be able to do the things you really want to do.

But once you get funded, the headaches just begin, and it starts to feel like a "real job." It's easy to get comfortable, to forget about all the hard work you put in before there was cash in the bank. And strangely enough, you end up wishing you could go back to the beginning or sell your company and start a new one.

Rather than being completely focused on the company, I found myself walking down the street, sometimes nostalgic about the little apartment Ryan and I lived in and sometimes dreaming about our big exit and all the money that would come with it.

Then, before we even realized what was happening, the market crashed, investors pulled back, and we didn't have salaries anymore. The whole company had gotten too comfortable; we weren't prepared to handle the downturn.

But oddly enough, three months later, things are going really well. We made a decision to switch up our business model and bring in revenue any way possible. Every dollar we make is treated like gold, we've managed to cut our burn rate by nearly 50% without losing any productivity, and we've realized just how many ways there are to make money, without begging someone for a multimillion dollar investment

I'm confident that we're going to make it through, and I'm convinced that when Brazen Careerist does end up a success, we will have George Bush to thank (Did I really say that?). The recession allowed us, or some might say forced us, to reevaluate and start over.

In a way, I did get my wish, Brazen is like a brand new start up, except we have a site that's already built, we have founders who have all done this part before, and we have a whole army of people that want us to succeed.

I've learned a lot from this whole experience, both personally and professionally. Difficult situations are the best learning opportunities; when things are good it's very difficult to see how you can improve. But when times are tough you have the opportunity to make difficult, life-altering decisions. Great businesses and great leaders embrace difficult situations and thrive when times are tough.

The question is, when adversity is staring you in the face, will you get comfortable, or will you embrace the adversity and emerge stronger than ever?

Leave your thoughts here. (7 responses)

This article´s comments All Employee Evolution comments

Tiffany

Feb 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am

Times like these teach us that problems can be a bad thing or a good thing, and that's mostly up to our own perspective. It's interesting to see how this recession is growing-up Gen Y in many ways, and you can hear this echoed throughout our collective voice in the blogosphere.

Glad to hear things are going well at BC.

Ryan Healy

Feb 12th, 2009 at 11:06 am

Thanks for the comment Tiffany. I think you're right, this recession will force Gen Y to grow up. Its a good thing, everyone needs to grow up and face difficult situations, if we can get through them in our twenties then we will know we can get through anything later in life.

Nicole Relyea

Feb 12th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

Thanks for the insight, Ryan. You made some excellent points.

I have found that, similarly, sometimes a layoff can be the best thing that can happen to a person. I was laid off last year and it did similar things – got me to reevaluate my goals, and gave me the space to make the necessary changes in order to achieve them.

Giving W. credit is a little dubious though.

Jamie

Feb 12th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

"But when times are tough you have the opportunity to make difficult, life-altering decisions. Great businesses and great leaders embrace difficult situations and thrive when times are tough."

AMEN!

Jamie

Feb 12th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

Ok, now a real comment. Truly, I think you've hit the nail on the head here. I love this post. It's optimistic and genuine. Thank you for sharing this and being transparent with what the BC crew has dealt with.

I think you're absolutely spot-on. When things are going well, we don't look for ways to improve, so when things take a turn for the worse, we're a little bit unprepared. Personally, I love the challenge that rough times present. It really tests our own willingness and desire to improve and usually we come out the better because of it.

Politicoholic by Nisha Chittal

Feb 19th, 2009 at 8:56 pm

If you're not growing, you're dying….

That is how I made my first ever big post-college career decision this week: by reminding myself of a friend who told me once: "If you're not growing, you're dying."
Well, I started my job hunt. I looked at some really interest…

Russ

Mar 16th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Absolutely. great post. We all need to self-reflect and find opportunity. We "HAVE" to grow through all of this economic turmoil so we all can grow and improve everything we do and are….

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