Have you ever experienced something that at first seemed terrible, but actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise?
For me, a couple of years ago, I was renting a room in a house and had almost all my stuff in one of those U-store-it places. I went to get something one day and discovered that someone had cut the lock off and had stolen most of my worldly possessions, including furniture, appliances, stereo equipment, golf clubs, etc… Needless to say, I was devastated.
However, this actually turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened.
(1) They didn’t take my personal momentos, movies, or books (of which many are first editions).
(2) It turned out that in a couple of months I was going to have to move cross-country for a job. No worrying about hiring/renting a big truck and towing my vehicle; everything now fit into a trailer.
(3) I got a fat insurance check for over $14,000, which allowed me to pay off two of my credit cards, pay for my move, and get better items for replacement and not have to worry about the stuff I didn’t really want any more. If I had tried to have a moving sale, or sell through the classifieds or a pawn shop, I would have gotten a couple grand, tops.
Moving into this place by myself has been a definite blessing. I thought I would go crazy living alone, and now I don’t see how I ever lived with other people. I have all this time that I never had before. This isn’t nearly as cool as the first example, of course, but I doubt much will be.
Last month I drove my car from Mexico City to Chicago, to sell it (the car had Illinois title and plates). I tried selling along the way in Texas, but no luck.
I put an ad in Yahoo classifieds and in the Tribune. On the first day, I got a call from a Chinese student (I think) at Northwestern University. He went out to look at it three times, and eventually offered $1700 for my '91 Shadow. I thought I’d get more, but I was only in town for a few days and it was close enough to my minimum acceptable price ($2250).
He called to say I’ll be right there, but he never showed up. Later that night I finally got in touch with him, he said Sorry, my wife changed her mind, and then sent email to say So sorry for wasting your time.
I was pretty angry, but then the next day I got a call from the Trib ad, and a Polish woman went out to look at the car. She returned later that night and paid $2200 cash.
I went through a horrible marriage to a jerk, but had I not gone through all that crap (I’ll skip the details), I would not have met my husband, had my daughter, or live the wonderful life I have now!
…everywhere you’ve been, leads you to where you are…
When I moved away from NYC I thought I failed and I didn’t think I would ever be able tyo get my career in the music biz off the ground.
I moved in with my parents. This also, at 25, was not thrilling to me. I really thought my life was about over.
With hindsight, I see that staying at home got me closer to my parents, who got to see me not as the bratty, rebellious teen I was when I left, but as a responsible, caring man. I especially got to spend more time with my mom who passed away recently.
I miss her…
I also found out who my “real” friends in the industry were, since many backed away, but others speared me on and encouraged me. I actually had two editors MAKE ME CONTINUE to write for them.
Finally, one of these real friends got me a job in NC which led me to get the record company job I always wanted in NYC.
A friend of ours called last night and told us this second-hand example of Despair-into-Delight.
Our friend owns a Harley and, like most H-D owners (us included!), had a long list of things he was planning to do to his scoot. A few weeks ago, someone stole his bike, rode it a few blocks and wrecked it. The bike was badly thrashed, but not totalled. It turned out that every single thing on his ‘to-do’ list was affected. The insurance check will cover everything he wanted to have done, including the things he was going to have to wait a year or two for. Plus, he’ll have a little left over for some extra goodies.
My Harley was stolen out of my garage 3 years ago. It was missing for over 2 weeks and I despaired of ever seeing again.
I was waiting for the insurance company to settle up, when one evening the police called and told me they found my bike.
They had raided a tow truck place for an unrelated reason and there was my bike, sitting in the corner, with a brand new set of tires, some new chrome, and sparkling clean.
A couple of years ago I was “let go” from a company where I had worked for almost 14 years. This came after the resolution of a lengthy lawsuit between shareholders. I had aligned myself with the group that eventually won the suit. They had promised all sorts of new opportunities and promotions when they prevailed. That wasn’t the reason I chose to back them though; I thought the other guys were untrustworthy and incompetent. It was just the icing on the cake.
Anyway, immediately after the lawsuit was settled, the winners sold their interests to the losers. I was one of the first to get the axe. It now appears they had been secretly negotiating the sell-out while the case was in court.
After a 3 month “sabbatical,” I found a job with an engineering consulting firm. At this place I found a small group of highly intelligent and motivated individuals among the usual drudges. I worked there for about a year and this group decided they wanted to start their own company. They invited me to join them, put together an excellent compensation package and even threw in a small piece of the action.
Everything is going very well now and I hope to retire from this company in about 30 years. It often takes a while, but a crisis can also be an opportunity.
One complete set of morals for sale to highest bidder, new in box.
I worked for a company owned by an insecure and prone-to-depression boss. During a fit of insecurity and depression, he fired my boss and most of the people who worked for him, including me. I was in the midst of a divorce, not sure if I could pay for my house/car/etc., and losing my job was the last thing I wanted to have happen. It was with a small startup, I was one of the first employees, and I was just sure it was going to pop and make me a bunch of money. Plus, I really clicked with my boss and was really bummed that I could no longer work for him.
I found another job fairly quickly - a former boss of mine had an opening, and she wanted me badly. I took the job even though it initially was not what I wanted - not the kind of work I wanted to be doing, it was a big company with few opportunities, etc. etc. But I was in a bad way (divorce, lost my job, attitude wasn’t great) so I took it. I figured I’d stay there for a year then look for a better job.
It’s going on two years now. The company has been sold twice, and my stock options are now well into the double digits. They moved us to a new building and I have a real office with a door and a window that looks out onto the mountains. It’s a 15 minute commute from my house. Everytime I turn around they’re giving me raises and more stock. I like the work, it’s low stress. And btw, the boss I liked so much? I’m now dating him.
The company that fired me is a sweat shop. It’s profitable, but they don’t give any stock or money to the employees. The owner is still insane - I heard he told a group of people in a meeting that if a project wasn’t done on time, he was going to buy a gun!
Needless to say, it’s all worked out for the best.