September 11th Changed Everything

How many times have you heard the phrase "September 11th changed everything" ? Most times you hear that statement, it is in reference to the horrendous attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001. If someone mentioned September 11, 2006, can you think of any life altering event that happened on that day ? Well forgive my self-absorbed thought process but on this day, an event happened in my life that will HOPEFULLY change me for life and all for the better. This event involves no tragedy or loss of life but instead involves an awakening and renewed thought process that came in the form of a BIG OLE F.U. from Corporate America.

So here is the scene, I arrived at work on Monday, September 11, 2006 and went to our routine 10am staff meeting. As is normally the case, I was cheerful and outgoing as that is my normal demeanor. The meeting concludes and my boss asks me and only me to stick around for a chat. An immediate "OH SH*T" look and feel comes over me. The next 10 minutes could have easily been replaced by any scene from "Office Space" or "The Office" which featured a boss feeding a steaming pile of bullsh*t to an employee over some "strategic corporate direction" that was going to result in that employee being bent over. More fortunate than most, I was not dismissed but more so DISRESPECTED by placing a junior level employee who I was previously managing in a management role who would now be ... DRUM ROLE PLEASE .... be managing me !! LOVELY !! Forgot to mention that I was also responsible for aggressively recruiting and pursuading this employee to come and join me at this new company because the environment is great and the work was challenging. Forgot to mention that the executives will look you in the eye, smile and laugh in your face, make you think all is well, and then drop the hammer on you as if they never knew you ... but of course I didn't know that yet. On September 11th, 2006, everything changed for me as far as my outlook on Corporate America and the perils of being a pawn in someone else's organization.

Most of us put in 8,9, 10, 11, 12 ... hours each day working our tails off for the benefit of corporations who give not a rat's rear about us as individuals. Of course that is not their job to care about us as individuals but when events such as what happened to me take place, you realize that the only person you can trust in the workplace is the one you see in the mirror. Most of us have dreams and passions that often involve something not related to what presently pays our bills. Because we must pay our bills, we do not sufficiently channel the energy of our passions to build what could potentially be a world changing business, service, invention, or idea. Therefore, we spend our lives working, paying bills, putting in overtime, working weekends, getting up early, ... while the brilliance of our ideas wallow away into a sea of hopelessness. How badly would it then sting to turn on the TV and see someone on TV raking in millions for the very idea that you have had for years but didn't channel your energy sufficiently because you were putting in all of these hours for a company that ultimately didn't care one iota about you ?

That is the change that September 11, 2006 brought about in me. My company disregarded the fact that I had put in so many long hours for their benefit that they will reap the rewards of for as long as the company exists. They didn't care about me enough as a person to handle the situation differently. No sweat, I will still be a professional and do my job but I will not be going the extra mile (or even 10 yards for that matter) for your benefit because I am ultimately an employee # and a line in an expense budget. The time that I would normally put into going the extra mile for your benefit will now instead be used to sufficiently channel my energy for all these ideas I have had forever but for no good reason, have refused to act upon. The change brought about by my own personal September 11th, will be one that will soon impact all of our lives in a positive way.

- Dub-Wise-Er