#GroceryDelivery #groceries #Amazon
Wes Moss saw the future of the grocery industry show up at his front door in the person of Rena, who was delivering his family’s groceries.
Moss, who writes a Money Matters column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ordered his groceries through a service called SHIPT. Rena, as it turned out, was his personal shopper.
Moss discussed his experience, and the future of the grocery industry, in a column published July 4, 2017.
Long before Amazon bought Whole Foods, Nielson had predicted that by 2025, nearly 20 percent of all grocery shopping will be done on-demand, Moss writes.
He recently tested the SHIPT service to see whether it could deliver a full week’s grocery list for the Moss family. Rena told Moss that she does as many as six to eight full-scale shops per day, earning wages and tips. Rena loves grocery shopping, Moss writes.
SHIPT employs tens of thousands of shoppers across the country. If the personal shopper model takes off, it could create a significant number of jobs, Moss writes.
Traditional grocery jobs may be replaced by more technologically centered roles, Moss writes. When ATMs came on the scene, it was feared the bank teller jobs would evaporate. The number of teller jobs actually increased from 500,000 to 550,000, Moss writes.
The point Moss is making is that old jobs may disappear, but, at least in some industries, they will be replaced by a different kind of job.
Many out there had good, “old” jobs. Those good, “old” jobs, in many cases, have either disappeared, or are about to disappear, before those who have them are ready to retire.
Complaining about the trend, or trying to force industry to resist such trends, is like complaining about the weather. You can’t stop progress, and, though people get hurt in the short run, good people usually end up on their feet – or even better off than they were.
Lamenting wastes energy that could be used to figure out what one should do next. Should he train for one of those “new” jobs in his industry? That may depend on one’s age, and how much he likes the industry he’s in.
If he’s like Moss’ Rena and loves grocery shopping, he may want to adapt to the new trend in whatever industry he’s grown to like. Or, he may literally become a personal shopper.
For some, though, it may be a chance to check out something new. There are many excellent ways to earn money without having a regular, W-2 job. To learn about one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Some of us see changing trends, downsizing etc. as evil. Perhaps it will turn some people’s lives upside down. But, like a fast-moving train with a weak brake, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to stop. Companies need to be flexible and nimble with the fast changes.
To those who work for such companies, your energy is better spent working on your next move than complaining about or resisting the inevitable.
Rena took good care of Moss and his family, he writes. She did so with a smile and lots of energy. He writes that it left him with a positive outlook on the future of food consumption.
A positive outlook on the future, whatever it holds for you, is the first step to improving your life.
Peter
Author Archives: pbilodeau01
BOOMERANG KIDS COME BACK TO CHANGE PARENTS’ LIVES
#BoomerangKids @AdultsLivingWithParents #EmptyNest
“Boomerang kids.”
These are the young adult children who move back home with Mom and Dad either because they don’t want, or can’t afford, to live on their own.
Of parents whose adult children returned in the last year, 68 percent reported more stress, and 53 percent said they were less happy.
That’s according to an article by Erin Arvedlund for The Philadelphia Inquirer. The article was also published Aug. 7, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
One in nine parents surveyed by Fidelity and Stanford University’s Center on Longevity reported having children who moved back home in adulthood, the article says.
Not only were most of the parents more stressed and less happy about that, 46 percent of mothers reported worse sleeping and weight gain, the article quotes the study.
The study, as quoted in the article, also reports that more 18- to 35-year-olds live with parents than with a spouse.
To prevent adult children from moving home, some parents are resorting to buying houses for the children, the article says.
It may be oversimplification to pinpoint causes for this, but let’s start with the economy. After the 2008 meltdown, jobs, even for young people, became scarcer. Those that did get jobs don’t make the kind of money to would allow them to live on their own.
The article also points out that some of these adult children are moving back with children of their own, so divorce, or having children outside of marriage, plays a part.
It’s hard for many of us in a different generation even resorting to moving back home for any length of time, no matter the circumstances. But these younger folks don’t see it as a problem, perhaps because their life at home was so good.
As Kelly Yamanouchi reported in the Oct. 24, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the average pay for Delta Air Lines flight attendants is $25,000 a year. It’s tough for a young adult to pay rent, eat and otherwise have a decent life today on that salary.
It still begs the question of how one has a social life around Mom and Dad, and how Mom and Dad work a social life around adult kids at home.
From the parents’ viewpoint, money that you give to your children is money you probably won’t have to retire on.
Undoubtedly, it’s not an easy decision to turn away your children in times of trouble. Many of them don’t have the opportunities for earning a living that their parents had, because there are fewer good jobs.
If you are a young adult contemplating moving home, for financial reasons or otherwise, remember that there are more ways to make an income, potentially a great income, than a W-2 job. To check out one of the best, message me.
If you are a parent getting set to take in an adult child, try to discern the real reason they want to move home, and try to help them find an alternative – perhaps short of buying them a house – to moving back home.
Parents and adult children living under one roof can create so much tension, simply because each has his or her own way of doing things. Neither parents nor children need that stress.
It’s good for adults to live on their own when possible. It helps the economy and society as a whole. Make sure that if you have to move back in with Mom and Dad, that it will be very temporary, and for the right reasons.
Peter
ECONOMICS: A MATTER OF CHOICE
#economics #NobelPrizeForEconomics #RichardThaler #BehavioralEconomics
People make poor choices about money.
That may seem obvious to some, but Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago has made a career of studying people’s economic behavior. He was rewarded last week with the Nobel Prize in economics.
“Far from being the rational decision makers described in economic theory, Thaler found, people often make decisions that run counter to their best interests,” write David Keyton and Jim Heintz of the Associated Press. Their article on Thaler’s prize was published Oct. 10, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“To contain the damage from such collective actions (like not saving enough for retirement, buying houses as prices soared, or failing to get out of a bad investment even as the value plummets etc.), behavioral economists say, policy-makers must recognize human irrationality,” the reporters write.
Irrationality is part of being human. It applies not only to economic decisions, but also other life choices. Everyone knows smoking is bad for you, yet there are still people smoking. Everyone can cite all the foods that are bad for them, but eat those foods anyway.
Not everyone makes bad decisions all the time, and not every “bad” decision is terribly consequential. But a pattern of bad decisions over time – or just one bad decision made consistently over time – can be detrimental, even disastrous.
It hardly takes a Nobel laureate to figure out that if one does not save for his retirement, his life will be worse for it.
There’s good news in all of this. The world has created ways to perhaps compensate for bad economic decisions – ways that don’t involve someone, or something, bailing someone out.
There are actual ways to earn extra money, perhaps even lots of extra money, by spending a few non-working hours a week in their pursuit. To learn about one of the best such vehicles, message me.
One always can put himself on a path to good economic decision-making. It boils down to spend less, save more and, to continue borrowing from consumer adviser Clark Howard’s tagline, “don’t get ripped off.”
It requires discipline, of course. It requires rational thinking throughout your life. It requires watching where every penny goes. Yes, even a few pennies saved here and there can add up over time.
It requires thinking less about today, and more about tomorrow, and years from now. That may be difficult to do as a young adult, just starting to build a life. You’ll have expenses, family etc., that will cost you money. But a good way to start is by saving a specific amount every week – even, say, $5.
Save it and don’t think about spending it. As your pay at work increases, save that increase. As your savings grow, get good trusted advice about how to invest it.
Thaler joked to the AP reporters that he would spend his Nobel Prize money “as irrationally as possible.”
“In traditional economic theory, it’s a silly question,” Thaler told the reporters. “And the reason is that money doesn’t come with labels. So once that (Nobel) money is in my bank, how do I know whether that fancy bottle of wine I’m buying (is being paid for by) Nobel money or some other kind of money?” he told the reporters.
In other words, money is money. When it is put into our hands, being a good steward of it is essential. That’s not to say that we can’t have a nice bottle of wine, or some other treat, once in a while. We need SOME irrationality in our lives just to be human. It gets dangerous, though, when one allows irrationality to always trump rationality.
Peter
UPS IS ADDING JOBS, BUT FOR HOW LONG?
#UPS #OnlineShopping #AddedJobs
UPS is “hiring like crazy” because of the growth in e-commerce. “I’ve never seen jobs get added at UPS like it has in the last year,” says Eric Massaro, a shop stewards for the Teamsters union at a UPS sorting facility in Roswell, Ga.
Massaro was quoted in an article by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Kelly Yamanouchi, published Aug. 25, 2017.
In addition to adding people, UPS is adding technology to help it get packages delivered more quickly, with fewer mistakes and greater efficiency, the article says.
The UPS situation illustrates how a decline in some brick-and-mortar retail businesses can turn in to a boon elsewhere.
UPS also had to add Saturday delivery, because people shop online on weekends and the packages back up on Mondays, the article says.
UPS is also trying to nudge customers to pick up their own packages at various locations, to save time for its drivers, the article says.
Let’s examine the UPS situation from a different perspective. Right now, it’s hiring – “good-paying jobs with benefits,” the article quotes Massaro. The workers are putting in long hours which, if you are unemployed, could make you jealous.
But what the article does not discuss is what technology could do to a lot of those jobs 10 or 20 years hence.
Think driverless vehicles, better sorting and loading technology, deliveries to homes by drones, etc. And let’s not forget that Amazon is testing its own delivery service, which could affect UPS directly. Yamanouchi reported on that in the Oct. 6, 2017, edition. The trend at UPS could be good if you don’t have many more years left to work. If you are just starting out, though, think long and hard about what you will do.
Most jobs undergo change whether the person doing them changes or not. Companies have to be flexible and nimble enough to change quickly, as situations change. Therefore, companies will need to have less structure and more technology to allow them to change more quickly.
The article says that UPS has increased its technology already, but still needs even more people. That’s good news for those looking for work today. Working at UPS for a few years could get you over the hump, if you’ve lost a good job and are having trouble finding another one.
But a wise person will also be looking at a Plan B – something he could do a few hours a week when he’s not working at, say, UPS. There are many such vehicles out there for those willing to look for them. To check out one of the best, message me. You might even see something that will allow you to do online shopping and save money, too.
It is not as easy being a working person today, as it was several decades ago. Change came more slowly then, and that allowed people to finish out careers and retire when they were ready. Today, that is almost unheard of. People are often forced out of jobs long before retirement age and are banished to a job market that doesn’t want them.
Thanks goodness companies like UPS need people. But one could mistakenly think that its need for people will be everlasting. That kind of thinking might be a mistake.
Using the retailers’ example again, there was a time when some retailers could not keep up with demand in their stores. As fast as goods came in, they were bought.
Today, many of those same retailers are struggling, because of e-commerce and other reasons. Don’t let this sudden demand for help by UPS allow you to think it won’t go away. Many good things like this usually do. Be ready, so if the rug is pulled out from under you, you can have a puffy pad to land on.
Peter
BROKEN PROMISES AND PENSIONS: NEVER PRESUME
#UPS #pensions #FreezingPensions
UPS plans to freeze pensions for non-union employees effective 2023.
So says an article by Kelly Yamanouchi, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was published June 29, 2017.
The freeze will affect about 70,000 administrative and managerial employees, the article quotes UPS.
The employees will be shifted to a plan that includes extra company contributions to each employee’s 401(k) accounts, the article says.
“Continued increases in future pension obligations and volatility that makes it difficult to plan for future costs,” was cited in the article as the reason for the change. The non-union pension plan has a deficit of about $6.5 billion, according to the article.
It’s difficult to judge how badly those non-union employees will be hurt by this change, but it speaks to an ongoing trend.
If you are fortunate enough to work for someone that provides a pension plan – they are getting fewer by the day – be prepared for some changes somewhere along the way. Unionized employees in both the public and private sectors are susceptible to changes, even if a contract locks the employer in.
It’s truly the wise person who anticipates changes, even if he or she doesn’t know what those changes are, or when they will come.
UPS, it seems, is giving their affected employees some warning, so they can begin planning.
It’s unsafe to presume that your employer – again, if you are lucky enough to be in a pension plan – will do the same, or even give you notice.
So, if you are not covered by a pension plan, or if your pension plan undergoes a sudden change that may give less than you had anticipated, what should you do?
If you are still relatively young, start by not presuming that your company will take care of you when you retire. Remember the adage, if it is to be, it’s up to me.
Save your money as if there will be NO benefits coming to you from your company. If you get benefits, then you’ll be that much better off. In other words, consider whatever pension you get to be gravy.
Next, sit down with a trusted adviser who can guide you to a financial plan that will cover your life expenses now, and encourage you to save so you can provide for yourself in your elder years.
There’s nothing worse that working your tail off for, say, 40 years, and be broke, or close to, when you are older.
Also, anticipate the possibility that you WILL BE retired before you want to be. That is happening, and has happened, to countless people.
Another tip: instead of getting a second job if you are unable to save enough, look into one of the many vehicles out there that allows you the chance to earn a potentially lucrative income with a few part-time hours a week. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
The corporate and business worlds are littered with broken promises to employees. Never presume that promises made when you were hired will be kept when you retire. Don’t even assume that promises made the day you were hired will be kept throughout your career.
Remember, too, that as you walk through that broken promissory litter, no one but you will pick up the pieces.
Peter
ONE PERSON CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
#AndyAndrews #ChangeTheWorld #OnePersonCanChangeTheWorld
t’s hard to determine what thing, words etc. will motivate someone.
The words, “By your hand, the world will be fed, or live, or be free” motivated lots of well-known folks in Andy Andrews’ book, “The Lost Choice: A Legend of Personal Discovery.”
The book relates a story of pieces of a relic that travels through history and winds up in the hands of a young couple in Colorado.
The translated inscription offered motivation to various historical figures.
The point: you can make choices that can change the world.
That’s a particularly appropriate message for folks today.
We tend to let circumstances dictate our choices. Certainly, circumstances can affect some choices, but only we can dictate our choices.
It’s perhaps best to illustrate it this way: a lost job is a circumstance, usually beyond one’s control. Blaming people or institutions for our circumstance is not the best choice to expend our energy. Looking for a different way to earn money would be a much better choice.
Getting a different job may not “change the world,” but it could change YOUR world for the moment.
So the new job you got, if you were so fortunate, doesn’t pay as well as the one you lost. You could choose to blame the changing world, and long for the good old days that will never come back. That would not be the best choice.
Or, you could look for something completely different from what you are doing – or did – and really change your world, and perhaps many others’ worlds as well. That would be a better choice.
Where does one find such a world-changing vehicle? Actually, there are many such vehicles out there, for those willing to look for them. To check out one of the best, message me.
Andrews’ book illustrates in great detail how the actions of one person can change the world. Many of the individuals he features became well-known for their feats. Some were not so well-known, but no less extraordinary.
The young couple’s choice to research the origins of the relic they’d found in their yard, rather than, say, use it as a paper weight and forget about it, or, worse, throw it away as insignificant, was world-changing for them.
We can change the world in big ways, or little ways. We can start a business that ultimately employs hundreds, or even thousands, or we can pick up litter we see on the street and discard it properly.
So, pondering the choices you make, or have made, what choices would you make in the future to change the world. How would you help others more? If, indeed, you believe that what goes around comes around, you’ll believe that the more you concentrate on helping others, regardless of your circumstances, the more likely you will ultimately be rewarded handsomely.
We don’t always know when such rewards will come for us, so we bask in the reward of knowing that what we did made someone else’s life better, even for a moment.
So, make good choices. Don’t let circumstances force bad choices. And, be on the lookout for the person already in your life, or who will come into your life, that will present you with a world-changing choice.
Peter
BE ADAPTABLE, LIKE SNOOPY
#BeAdaptable #Snoopy #CharlieBrown #Peanuts
Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s dog, had many alter egos.
He was, at times, the Easter Beagle, Joe Cool, World War I Flying Ace or Joe Grunge.
Being adaptable is just one of the leadership lessons in the book,”You’re A Leader, Charlie Brown,” which puts Charles Schulz’s words into lessons, with the help of Carla Curtsinger and Brian Tracy.
Other leadership qualities the book touts are perseverance, presence, communication, listening, inspiration, teamwork, loyalty, acceptance, and celebration.
All these attributes are important, and were displayed by the various characters in the Peanuts gang. Fans of the comic strip can undoubtedly match the trait with a character.
Adaptability is perhaps a key attribute in today’s world. Have you, or anyone you know, been hired for a specific job, and, sometime into the tenure, have seen that job change – perhaps multiple times?
Just when you get comfortable being pigeon-holed into a role, it changes. With companies, in today’s world, that undoubtedly happens often.
Sometimes, the result of rapid change means someone, perhaps you, loses a job.
When change comes, you have a choice. You can complain about what has happened to you, and long for the good old days (weren’t you just complaining about those days yesterday?). Or, you can adapt.
Adapting, mind you, is more than just living with what is. It is quickly buying in – even embracing – the new circumstance. Those that do can consider themselves leaders.
Those leaders find new ways to do things. They figure out not just how to make the best of – even thrive in – a situation different from what they were used to. They learn how to make themselves, and their company, successful.
Many of you are probably now, or have recently, undergone a change in your situation, be it professional or personal. How have you dealt with that? Does your adaptation make you proud of yourself? Did what you thought would be a bad outcome turn out well? Did you make it turn out well?
Adaptability is one thing that we all must learn, because, seemingly with each passing day, something is thrown at us that we didn’t expect. Consider residents of the Southeast U.S. and Texas, dealing with recent hurricanes, for the ultimate lessons in adaptability.
If you’ve gone through, or are going through, a situation that requires significant adjustment to your life or career, and are looking for a vehicle that could turn things to your favor, such vehicles are out there for those open to looking for them. To check out one of the best, message me.
You don’t have to have multiple personalities, or multiple identities, like Snoopy, to adapt to change.
But it is up to you to make the new situation the best it can be. It may not always be easy, and it may require different adjustments with each change, but you can’t expect others to make the adjustments for you.
With flexibility comes success. If your situation is good now, and you don’t believe it will ever change, presume that it will. You may not know when, or see the change coming, but today’s world demands change and flexibility.
We are all creative. When change comes, it will be up to us how we adjust, lest we be punished for not adjusting.
Peter
DO WHAT YOU LOVE; LOVE WHAT YOU DO
#DoWhatYouLove #LoveWhatYouDo #BuildALife
If it weren’t work, they wouldn’t pay you for it.
If you do what you love, you’ll never work again.
You work so you can have the things you want in life.
Instead of building a life around income-producing activities, build a life – then figure out how to make money.
All of these axioms are true. Depending on the type of person you are, some ring truer than the others. If you hate your job, the first and third ring especially true. If you love your job, the second one probably fits you. If you are among the few who’ve looked for, and found, ways to produce income WITHOUT having a traditional or typical “job,” the fourth statement can be your mantra.
As the job scene changes, we don’t have the luxury of reliving the past. We have to find a way to deal with what is today. The economic downturn of 2008 changed a lot of lives. Some people’s jobs were lost and will never return. Those who stayed employed may have found their jobs have changed – probably forever.
If the first axiom rings true for you, and you lost your job, you are probably out pounding the pavement looking for another one. If you’ve found another one, you are lucky. If you are still looking years later, perhaps a new strategy is needed. You may have to figure out what your skills are, and figure out how to parlay those skills into a business of your own. When you own your own business, no one can fire you, or lay you off. However, you can do it to yourself if you give up on it too soon. If you need an immediate income, you may have to resort to finding a different job, even if it pays less – and most do – than you had made previously.
START YOUR OWN BUSINESS
If you’ve saved well, invested well and were wise about how you’ve lived – and have lost your job — you may now have the luxury of starting a business and staying with it until it succeeds. If you do this successfully, the second axiom could ring true to you. If you have a business, you’d better love what you do, or learn to love it, because it will take the routine out of your previous life. It could consume you, especially if it is either wildly successful, or a real struggle to keep afloat. Remember that being in business for yourself involves more than just doing what you do. You have to market yourself, and find ways to let others know you are out there and available for them. That may not come easily to most, but it’s vital to your success.
If you are working, and don’t think your job will ever disappear, remember we are in an age in which companies reorganize often. You might want to take to heart the fourth axiom. Look around for any number of ways to produce income. To learn about one of the best vehicles for that, message me.
You can set up an income stream without it interfering with what you are doing now. Never believe that you’ll always be able to work at a job on YOUR terms. Try to make yourself “retirement ready,” even if you are young and believe you have a lot of good years left.
Who knows? You might be so successful at your part-time gig, you’ll have forgotten how much you loved your old job. Remember, too, that anything good requires some effort. Starting now to build a part-time income can reap big rewards later. You may even have fun doing it!
Work is changing. So are the ways people can make money. No matter your situation, look to leverage your time and income to build the life you’ve always wanted.
Peter
WAGE DISPARITY AND THE SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS
#WageDisparity #MiddleClass #WageGapBetweenWealthiestAndRest #IncomeGrowth
A Pew Research study says middle-income Americans have fared worse in many ways than their counterparts in Western Europe in recent decades.
Meanwhile, business writer Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune says the wage gap between the richest and the poorest is jaw-dropping, and that CEOs are going to have to deal with the problem sooner or later.
Nelson D. Schwartz wrote about the Pew Research study on the middle class for The New York Times. His article was published May 29, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Huppke’s article about wage disparity was published May 28, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Schwartz’s article talks about a man in Gillespie, Ill., whom his neighbors consider lucky. After a year out of work, he found another job making cardboard boxes that pays him $19.60 an hour. The steel-mill job he lost paid $28 an hour.
“The middle class is struggling for sure, and almost anybody in my position will tell you that,” Schwartz quotes Gillespie.
The reporter points out that although the U.S. has a higher median income than Europe’s, the Europeans are catching up. Median incomes in the middle tier grew 9 percent between 1991 and 2010, compared with a 25 percent growth in Denmark and 35 percent in Great Britain, Schwartz writes.
That kind of U.S. growth only widens the wage gap between the wealthiest and the rest.
Data collected by the AFL-CIO show the average pay for an S&P 500 CEO last year was $13.1 million. That’s 347 times the average American worker’s pay, Huppke quotes the labor union’s study. Meanwhile, online jobs review site Glass-door says the CEOs only made 205 times more than average workers at their companies, Huppke writes.
In other words, pay for the honchos growing and pay for the working stiffs is shrinking.
Why should the CEOs care?
“Ignoring this disparity is as short-sighted as it is counterproductive for the future health of an organization,” Huppke writes. “They’ll (CEOs) will hear a lot less complaining about their giant paychecks if they find a way to grow everyone else’s as well,” Huppke writes.
Believe it or not, the news is not all bad for the working stiffs. There are plenty of ways for any person, from any background or education, to raise his income – perhaps not at the job he is working at now.
The key is to be open to looking at such ways openly, and be willing to do something you may not have ever done. As a bonus, you’ll have a way to help others prosper, too. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
As another aside, many CEOs are going to scratch their heads in wonder why fewer folks are buying their products. Perhaps your customers have been forced to spend less because their pay keeps shrinking. People work for you, but can’t afford to buy what they help make. Certainly, some of that is inevitable, but if a company makes an affordable, everyday product, the folks that make it should be able to afford to buy it.
It will take work to fix the problems of income disparity and the shrinking middle class. Perhaps the powers that be will get the message and fix it, but it would be more prudent for each person to take matters into his own hands. It can be done, if you have the desire to change and better yourself.
Peter
POLITICAL SCANDAL AND LOST JOBS
#PoliticalScandal #LostJobs #NewCareers
An engineer, 50, at the peak of his career, loses his job and can’t even get a callback, after an interview.
The CEO of the company he’d worked for was arrested and jailed and, just like that, 100,000 construction jobs are gone.
Today, that engineer operates a small, hair-removal salon in a mall on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Operation Car Wash, a sprawling investigation that traced corruption from a Brasilia gas station to the highest level of government in Brazil, has wrecked the economy there.
The investigation was discussed at length in an article by Marina Lopes and Nick Miroff in The Washington Post. It was also published June 25, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
It has put in prison not only several politicians, but also executives in Brazil’s construction, petrochemical and meat industries. They are charged with trading bribes in lieu of lucrative government contracts, the article says.
Fortunately, we are facing nothing like that here, though, in the last decade, lots of 50-year-olds and others who had good jobs have lost them. Many of them have had to take jobs that paid much less than the jobs they’d lost – if they were fortunate enough to find work at all.
In Brazil, workers paid a steep price for the games of the rich and powerful. Unlike in Brazil, we in the U.S. have the ability, or can cultivate the ability, to weather hard times better, the article says.
The trick for us is that we have to be open to different things – not just what makes us comfortable.
As we find that replacement jobs pay much less, and offer fewer benefits, to thrive and prosper, we must be willing to check out things that we would have never dreamed we would do.
There are ways to prosper in trying times. When such vehicles are presented, though, one must be willing and open to check them out.
If you are hard-working, and what you are doing now does not suit you, your lifestyle, your family and your future, and would like to check out something different, message me.
Brazilians support the Car Wash investigation, hoping that it will clean house and will create a new culture of transparency, the article says.
Sometimes, one must go through something terrible to find out how strong he or she might be.
Sometimes, doors are suddenly closed, yet windows, or even bigger doors, are opened.
“The Brazilian engineering industry is finished,” the article quotes Silvia Boccagini, 52, a pipe technician in Brazil.
As for Ricardo Coelho, the 50-year-old engineer the article featured, he’s making more money with his hair-removal business than he did as a civil engineer.
“I’ll never go back,” the article quotes him.
Some of us can’t go back, even if we want to. It’s time we found something great to go to, rather than complain that we can’t go back.
Peter