A great weekend is over

Hands down, the best weekend in a long time for me. 

Nothing overly special with the exception of my good friend Rene Sloos’ birthday celebration on Saturday night where a number of us from Bulletproof joined Rene with friends and family celebrate his 46th birthday.  Congrats Rene…remarkable I am still 6 years younger than you after all this time.

My lovely bride and I invested the rest of our time together without kids this weekend.  They were still here however busy with work and isn’t that what summer is for with teenagers anyways.  I remember back when I was a teenager, I would be working everyday.  If I wasn’t working I would be calling in first thing in the morning to see if there was any shifts to be had.

The world has changed a lot since those days. 
Now kids don’t want to work and if they are at work, well are they really there?

This economic reset is the best thing to have happen in society, in my opinion.  I was speaking with some friends over the course of the weekend who have kids around the same age as mine.  What I learned from our discussions is employers are no longer grabbing every available teenager.  Even the summer employment market is becoming selective.

Pay attention kids of today’s world…even you and your peers need to learn how to market yourself and your skills (plus marketing is fine and a great career, you are always in marketing).  Just because you are “breathing” doesn’t mean you are employable any longer.  Employers are becoming more selective, they want great kids, they want those on the straight and narrow and they want those who are committed.  Build these skills early in your life, you will need them later on for sure.

I am trying to pass along some of the character building traits my Dad passed down to me.  I know a number of “Yuppy Mommies” (we really need to stop babying our youth, allow them to make mistakes and learn from them) won’t agree with this, however I feel that kids need to learn and respect what they learn and how they spend it.  “The Bank of Dad is closed”, I remember this when I was growing up.

My Dad never forgot what I owed him (and neither will my boys).  Come payday and he would be the first in line for repayment when I collected my paycheck.  I forget the value of money during our hockey stick growth days during IT Matters.  We grew rapidly and greed set in, at least for me.  If I learned something from that period it would be this.  Respect the money we make when we are making it, so you can live during the times you are not making it.

It’s quite a small thing, to begin wondering which beliefs of yours are limiting, which thoughts shut out others, and which philosophies need updating, but OMG, it makes for the BIGGEST life changes!