“If you are going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill
10 years ago yesterday I was doing some work at home in our basement and suddenly heard a large crash in our garage. I ran upstairs to see what it was and saw that the entire ceiling had collapsed. Parts of the ceiling were hanging everywhere, and all of our stuff that was up top had crashed to the floor. I just remembered, half laughing and thinking, this can’t get much worse, can it?
Let’s hit rewind now. I remember the exact day, as it was my wife’s birthday and she was out of town for a girls’ trip to Nashville. I was job hunting at the time, and things were tight. My career had been taking some interesting twists and turns. I started off at a small Mom and Pop research shop for the first 10-plus years of my career. It was the type of place that would promise you a bonus on Friday, then Friday would come, and there wouldn’t be anything different in your paycheck. Then, if you asked about it, they would remind you that you should just be happy to have a job in this environment. Eventually it got to the point I said they needed to pay me what I was owed or just fire me. Well, I was fired soon after. At the time, it wasn’t good, but looking back, I’m so thankful not to be stuck in a career like that.
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I then worked as a Portfolio Manager at a $600 million RIA. I was excited and this job held a lot of potential. Well, on my 90th day, the RIA was bought out (technically, it was already owned by a large bank, and the bank took the assets from the RIA and moved them to the bank), but either way, given I was the ‘new guy,’ I was let go.
I had been unemployed for about six months after I left the first job, and I didn’t know it at the time, but I had another seven months ahead of me looking for the right opportunity. We had a plan, but definitely had to be very careful about our finances. We had three young kids, and my wife worked as a social worker, a truly courageous career, but sadly not one that pays very well. I was working hard, but things would get worse, a lot worse, before they got better.
I did have an amazing potential opportunity to work for a large broker/dealer, and it was the job I wanted. But this was a national search and very competitive, so things were moving slowly. Still, I decided to take a chance and pass up other potential opportunities. Months and months went by. No one had been hired yet, and I knew I was still in the running. At the same time, our finances were getting more and more stretched. We were lucky to have some support from family, but it wasn’t at all easy. Through it all, I continued to believe this was the right job for me and I was the right person for the job.
As more time went by, things just got harder and harder. We were struggling. We even borrowed some money, which was really uncomfortable, and I knew I would have to rethink things soon. I love my career, but my first priority was and always will be my family. I still had no idea if this job would happen and time was running out.
This brings us to the story at the beginning of this post, because that’s when the garage roof collapsed. On December 9th, 2015, I walked into that garage and saw that the ceiling was gone and the floor was covered in our broken and damaged things. To this day, I remember just looking at it all, feeling numb, but thinking there’s no way it can get much worse than this. Go read the quote again at the top from Churchill. That’s where I was.
Thankfully, things did soon turn around. On December 23, 2015, I was offered the job I wanted, and this led to a great six-year run. Fast forward to today, and I’ve been at Carson for more than three years, and I’m having a ton of fun every single day.
I guess my point with this blog is that you never know how much someone has struggled to get where they are. People see me on TV and think it was easy getting where I was, but it sure wasn’t. Maybe some people fly through life, but I wasn’t one of them.
If you are in a similar situation and times are hard, my best advice is to keep the faith. Just keep networking and keep learning. When I was unemployed, I spent endless days deep in Excel, creating charts and tables, building my social media brand, and getting better at public speaking, all things that have directly benefited me over the years. Had I not been unemployed, I never would have done those things to improve. It is funny how things all work the way they are supposed to in the end.
I didn’t just sit around and hope something would happen. I worked hard to get better at my craft, kept the faith, and keep grinding. I hated to hear it at the time, but it is so true that when one door closes, another one opens. You want to punch the person in the face who tells you that when it is you in that situation, but it is so true.
Getting from where I was 10 years ago till now is something I’m proud of for sure, but I’ll be the first to admit I don’t take it lightly, and I’m borderline paranoid about it happening again. This is why I still work just as hard now as I ever have. When you’ve experienced that sick feeling of having kids, a mortgage, and Christmas presents to buy, but there’s no money and debt to pay off, you don’t forget it and don’t want it to ever happen again.
I will leave you with this. I’ve been fired, I’ve been laid off, and I’ve quit on my own. I’m so glad I’ve experienced all three, but I’ll say this, there’s no feeling like making the decision to move on on your own terms. 😉
Happy holidays to everyone out there, and if you are struggling right now, keep the faith. It’ll get better, I promise.
For more content by Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist click here.
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