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Getting Over Getting Fired

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: Take time to mourn over the loss of your job, and then move on.

Getting Over Getting Fired

One of the most common mistakes is to ignore good news. That~{!/~}s particularly easy to do when it comes on the heels of a disaster. Nevertheless, fixating on failure can make you oblivious to the seeds of your future success.

One Monday morning at nine o~{!/~}clock, John Carey was fired. There had been no warning. He had, of course, seen many of his colleagues laid off in the months before, shed so that his company would gain a leaner, more dynamic image. But he thought that he was specialized and safe, at least for a few years more.

Many people in John~{!/~}s position would immediately begin to look for another job. He was convinced, however, that another job wasn~{!/~}t for him. It wasn~{!/~}t yet ten o~{!/~}clock when he began to write a business plan. He had had some experience, years before, of working for and running small businesses. He resolved that he was never going to be an employee again.

However, beginning to write the plan is not the same as getting anything done. John sat there trying to write, making a number of false starts, never seeming to get anywhere. He knew more or less what he wanted to do: to make use of the specialized employee-training techniques he had developed for his employer and sell them to others. But the thoughts did not cohere, the words did not come, he could not arrive at a vision for how his business would work.

On his second day of grappling futilely with the business plan, he received an email. It was from a friend who had heard what had happened to John. He had some work he wanted John to do. It was something that John could do well, just the sort of thing he might have included in his business plan, had he been able to write it.

Even then, the knowledge that he would have income and something to do~{!*~}that his business was already off to a good start, in other words~{!*~}did not help John to imagine what this business would be. He sat at the computer but could not write a word. What should he say he was doing? What should he call his business? He had some answers, but none of them seemed right. His spirits sank lower and lower and lower.

Finally, he was able to talk himself out of this impasse by simply walking away from the task. Starting to write a business plan an hour after being fired, he decided, was not a way of addressing his problem, but rather a way of denying it. His job had been a very good one, with a good salary and good benefits. He had believed he was very good at what he did.

He had put years of his life into working for that company, and suddenly all the imagination and passion he had invested in his work had been judged valueless. Part of his life had perished that Monday morning, and he had denied himself the time to mourn. He decided that he needed to put his emotions first and deal with the loss before he tried to define what would happen next in his life.

John needed time to realize that one big change in his life was that he would not have the apparent security and predictability of life as an employee. At the least, he became properly grateful that work had materialized right away, and opted, for the moment, to allow that experience to guide him. ~{!0~}I decided,~{!1~} he said, ~{!0~}to let the marketplace tell me what is needed rather than try to force myself to come up with a detailed idea right away.~{!1~}

He realized that he had been avoiding socializing, even though talking with others is one of the best ways to develop or clarify ideas. As he opened himself up to uncertainty, he was able to stop hiding. He felt his anger subside. He was able to think soberly.

That~{!/~}s when he realized that there were things that were more important to his business than a detailed business plan. He bought health insurance, purchased a computer, looked for an office, then settled in his spare bedroom when that option proved too costly.

When I talked with him, he still didn~{!/~}t have a business plan but he did have work. Indeed, one of his clients is the company that fired him. It still values his expertise, only on a part-time basis. He~{!/~}s happy to have the work, but he doesn~{!/~}t see it as vindication. He has come to terms with that loss in his life, and is finally ready to move on.

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Article Tags: business plan, colleagues, disaster, dynamic image, email, failure, futilely, job, john carey, monday morning, o clock, one monday, seeds, shed, small businesses



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What have you trademarked? - Trademarking can a difficult and time consuming process. It also doesn't always work out (ie. Donald Trump was not able to trademark the phrase "You're Fired") What have you trademarked and has it helped your business?
Re: Review My: Trump 4 President Site - Hey Zac - congrats on getting it up quickly! My first thoughts are: loud and cluttered. Red is a very powerful color and to have it as a background can be really hard on the eyes (especially a widescreen monitor where the background is so big). There's also a lot going on - what do you want people to do? Get on the newsletter list? I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do next... I love the picture though with Trump on Uncle Sam with the You're Fired Mr. President - I think the content will shine through more as you get the graphic interface looking a little nicer. You might want to consider putting it up on 99designs for some bids. How do you plan to monetize the site? That could help us help you better as well!
Book review: We Got Fired: And its the best thing that ever - Book review: We Got Fired: And its the best thing that ever happened to us Edited by Harvey McKay. Featuring - in microcosm - the business life stories about 30 CEOS (too many names for me to mention here), but politicians, football coaches, and business people such as Donald Trump, Lou Holtz and Bill Bellichek, etc. Each chapter is an interview with one of these individuals, telling why they were "fired" and how they then moved on to something else and made a success of that. The main thing to take away from the book is that, even if you as an entrepreneur have to "fire yourself" from one job, take that as a reason to go into a different field and make a success of that, as it can and has been done.


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