Which is another way of saying you must be nimble.  And being nimble is 
necessary for success in business, especially technology-related enterprises.

John Lee



At 02:33 PM 4/16/06 -0400, Wirt Atmar wrote:

>It's said that when you own your business, you only have to work half days,
>and it doesn't really matter much which 12-hour stretch you put in each day.
>
>But seriously folks, starting your own business and working "half-days" may
>be your only option. The world is changing, not only for MPE 
>professionals, but
>for all engineering-related tasks. Secure jobs in well-lit cubicles are
>diminishing in number (but obviously not altogether disappearing) and you 
>may as
>well prepare for it.
>
>Don't let anyone tell you differently: there really is age discrimination in
>anything technology related, not because you're merely getting old, but
>because (i) you cost more relative to your worth than someone younger, and 
>because
>(ii) a kid half your age won't really mind being laid off. When an employer
>hires someone, they not only take on a financial burden but a 
>psychological one
>as well. No one wants to fire anyone, ever. They know the pain that it causes.
>
>The only cure may well be to start your own business. To do that, find
>something that you really enjoy doing, something that you're good at, but 
>most
>importantly something that someone else wants done and would be willing to 
>pay you
>an honest wage for doing -- and it doesn't have to be computer-related
>initially, although it almost certainly will be given a bit of time.
>
>But don't let anyone tell you that starting your own business will be easy.
>Most new businesses fail, not because of a lack of anything so estoteric as a
>lack of a business plan or even enough initial capitalization, but because 
>they
>simply weren't providing a product or service that someone wanted to buy.
>Listen very carefully to what your first customers tell you. Satisfying their
>needs, honestly and with integrity, must become your only goal in life.
>
>I write this with all authority, sounding as if I knew what I was talking
>about, but let me also honestly say, after being in business for 30 years 
>now,
>each new day remains a mystery to me. Conrad Hilton, another New Mexican, 
>once
>said that after 50 years in the hotel business, the only thing that he 
>knew for
>sure about the hotel business was that "you spill a lot less water on the
>bathroom floor when you put the shower curtain inside the tub rather than 
>leave
>it out." I feel exactly the same way. I really don't know what the next day
>will bring. There's absolutely no security in any of this, but it's also 
>part of
>the joy of the process.
>
>Wirt Atmar
>
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