Thursday, December 18, 2008

Why Screw Yahoo?

A former worker of Yahoo! recently has made a video titled "Screw You Yahoo" (link is here).

I sympathize the plight of losing one's job. However, I just feel there are a lot of people think they are entitled to their jobs and it is as sacrosanct as their birth rights. And when they suddenly got fired, they were in a very rude awakening, realizing so far they harbored neither skill nor money to withstand the ever changing world.

If we look closely to those families who are hit by the waves of retrenchments and lay-offs, I am sure there are a lot of heart-wrenching stories: kids can't go on with their educations, old folks can't retire and have to continue working, couples fight and quarrel over petty cash, family cancel their holiday plan, etc. It is therefore much more relevant and useful to learn from others' mistakes and not to repeat those.

I think what I can learn from this wave of economic crisis is:
  1. A lot of conventional assumptions are proven wrong. Usually people will think banks will never fail, hey, they can just print more money! Now, a lot of banks have gone belly up. My other thought is when people are flooding a particular place/field, we should avoid that place entirely. For example, banking and the financial sector have been the hot babes in town. Countless people, from the working professionals to high school kids all want to be bankers or financial analysts because of the obscenely high salaries. Think about it, where does all the money come from?
  2. Usually people will jeer at people who put cash under their pillow as silly and ignorant, however this crisis proves those people's money seem to be safer than those who put in the bank. Those who entrust the almighty banking system may not even see most of their money if their savings are over the insured limit.
  3. Complacency kills. If you don't push yourself hard enough, you won't make it when the external world pushes you. Case in point is the car manufacturers in the states. They have been complacent for decades, even after losing market share year after year to Japanese and even Korean car makers, no attempt was done to revamp and streamline the product line. The outcome is when the crisis stroke, they fell flat on their faces. Guess who gotta foot the bill....?
The world is changing in a faster and faster pace, and definitely all rules are made to be broken. We have to be vigilant and keep studying the environment in order to keep abreast with the latest development. The bad news is we can't rest. The good news is, change does bring about opportunities. So if you study the world carefully and apply common senses, it is much easier to be successful than in the normal times.

Good luck ;)

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