How to Thrive in Any Economy « Personal Development and Success Coaching by C.S. Hughes

How to Thrive in Any Economy August 26, 2010

Tony Robbins on Larry King Live

Recently, I stumbled onto the Larry King Show where he was interviewing Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google and self help author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins. It was fascinating to watch. It was a perfect clash of old economy meets new. Even though Google is a high-tech company on the cutting edge, it’s CEO portrayed classic old school thinking in this interview. Whereas Tony Robbins represented the mind of the new economy.

Larry Kings says: “Now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States is 10.2 percent. That's a 26 year high. It adds up to an awful lot of people without jobs. Almost 16 million people are unemployed. Do you think it's going to get better before it gets worse?”

The first to respond was Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. He shared his feelings that things are certainly going to get worse (and I agree) before they get better. But then he said:

“So my message to our friends who are unemployed is that it will get better, you just have to wait a little bit longer.”

When I heard him say “you just have to wait,” I all but came undone. I started yelling at the television! No! Don’t wait! How much longer can you wait? Don’t wait! That’s not the answer! What's the matter with this guy?!? But before I could finish my tirade, Tony Robbins chimed in with a voice of reason.

“DON'T WAIT!” he cautioned! “We’ve got to feed our families. You don’t wait, you retool!”

In other words, you’ve got to remake yourself. And this is done best through personal development and the techniques I teach here on my blog. Just because you’ve done real estate or mortgagees or you’ve been a building contractor or any other profession for the last 5, 10, 20 or even 40 years, doesn't mean that’s what you have to be for the rest of your life.

Millions who have been adversely effected by the economic downturn are sitting on the sidelines just waiting. The new economy says don’t wait! It says, LEARN! GROW! WORK! BRING VALUE! GET BETTER! CHANGE!

Down Economy -vs- New Economy

Contrary to popular belief, we are not in a “down economy,” we're in a new economy, with new rules. If you don’t learn the rules of the the new economy you’re going to be in really, really bad shape. (By the way, if you've not read Robert T. Kiyosaki's book, The Conspiracy of the Rich, I would put it at the very top of your reading list. He talks about the 8 new laws of money. Some of them will surprise you, as they are the exact opposite of what we've been taught our whole lives… and he's right.)

What we are witnessing, right before our very eyes, is the disappearance of the middle class. In a very few short years, the middle class will be a minute sliver of the overall economic pie. Most people in America and many other nations around the world will either be rich or very poor. Very few will remain in the middle. Those who retool, and educate themselves on the times we're in, even if they're currently lower class, can rise to become rich. And on the other side of the coin, we have all seen those who were considered rich, backslide past the middle class, to join the poor. We have seen this tons over the past few years, and will continue to see it until almost all have been sorted into the major classes of rich or poor.

Tony Robbins on the need to Retool

Back to the interview, KING asks Tony: “Tony, you talk about retooling. A 52-year-old autoworker who's been on the job for 25 years gets laid off. All he knows how to do is raise a family and make cars. How does he retool?”

Tony’s reply was the highlight of the interview: He said: Well, a lot of people ask how does he — he doesn't have a choice. If he gets that, he'll take action, because it's a must, not a should.”

It’s like he laid in bed all night memorizing that line hoping he could use it in the interview! It was so good! So perfect for this discussion. And then he concludes by saying:

“If you don't retool now, you're going to have to retool later and you're going to have a lot of pain.”

Here’s what I hear Tony saying: You might continue to earn money in your chosen profession. You may find another job in your field, but eventually, you're going to need to remake yourself, so you might as well do it now!

How Much is Too Much?

I have seen so many of my friends bounce from job to job to job like an insane person, doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result. I want to shake them by the collar and say, “When are you going to learn? Don't you think it's time you take your future into your own hands rather than putting it in the hands of a corporation which does not care if you sink or swim?”

Maybe I'm out of touch because it's been nearly 11 years since I've had a job, but my thought is, if I got laid off once, I would probably look for another job. If I got laid off twice, I would certainly entertain the thought of starting my own business or doing some free-lancing. If I got laid off a third time, I would wash my hands of that nonsense forever. That's nuts!

One of the major benefits of the unemployment situation in our current global economy is that so many people can't get jobs, or refuse to get laid off again, so millions of people around the world have started their own business and have begun the retooling process.

C.S. Hughes to the Rescue!

This is EXACTLY what I'm doing here at cshughes.com. I am working as hard as I've worked in a long time, to help people retool their minds, philosophies, attitudes, beliefs and their faith. I doesn't matter who you are, what you do for a living, if you are unemployed, employed, self employed or a business owner, you can insulate yourself a great deal, if not completely from whatever economic uncertainty the future may hold.

Bonus Videos

Below there are two videos from Tony Robbins. It's pretty heavy subject matter, but it's important. And, for what's it worth, I agree with him 100% on this one.

You'll get your own nugget from the videos, but this was mine:

“In the middle of all this (economic shift), if you want to be successful, find a way to add more value than anyone else is adding. And, find a way to bring value to people you don't get anything from. Find a way to give much more than you receive.”

What's your nugget? Please share it with us below. And if you like this article, please share it using the Facebook, Twitter and other links below.

Tags: C.S. Hughes, Eric Schmidt, How to Thrive in Any Economy, personal development, Retool, Tony Robbins, Tony Robbins Videos about the economy

Anonymous

Great article Chris! I absolutely agree.
http://www.cshughes.com C.S. Hughes

Thanks PPLCrusader! CSH
Creativeonr

Excellent. Thank you.Message I received: It’s OK to be in the season of winter.If we spend all our time wishing for spring, we will miss the beauty (& opportunity) of the day. When you think of a new snow fall, it’s deep, soft & fluffy. When you go out in it, you sink in. When it matures a little, it becomes more compact and firm. The sun comes out and glistens over the top. When you put on the skis you can glide over the top for a H……of a ride. Yes, you might slip and fall, maybe even take a good spill, but with the right tools, pick yourself up, brush yourself off and get back up. It’s up to each of us to make the conscious decission if we are going to go out and play or just hybernate.
Ninaf2010

Awesome Awesome!! Your words and the words of Mr. Robbins shine truth to the words “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” Thank you for planting the seed.
Michael

Awesome advice. It’s time to wake up and move forward, to open our minds to new ways of thinking, to dispense with some of the traditional paradigms. Everyone needs a business in order to have control of their income, employed or not. Otherwise they are at the mercy of the economy, their employer, to the reality of current an future inflation which we’ve dealt with for a hundred years, which has the potential to accelerate beyond anything we’ve known in this country! That possiblity is out there. We may feel safe now. But what happens when six-figures has the equivalent buying power of five, or less? Time to learn, time to grow.
http://www.cshughes.com C.S. Hughes

@Michael: Great comments. I heard somewhere that, “Those who are prepared need not fear.” Thanks for jumping into the conversation. CSH
http://www.cshughes.com C.S. Hughes

Awesome Nina. Thanks! CSH
Jonathan

C.S. Hughes you’ve done it again! Thanks so much for investing your time and efforts creating such meaningful and valuable posts. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest” – Benjamin Franklin.
Mark Schlenker

In 2001 I was working in photocopier sales. It was my 2nd year in the industry and I had become quite successful. I was born for sales, my family and friends would say. I had made 50k my first year (more money than I had made my entire adult life prior to that) and 70k my second year. When the company I was working for didn’t take me seriously and basically laughed at me when I expressed a desire to look into management, I became a disgruntled employee. when a competitor enticed me with a better compensation plan and the opportunity to enter into a management training program, I jumped ship. 3 months later I was let go, they were down sizing. within a month I was working for my third company and the corporate monster reared its ugly head again. I became a wistle blower when I was asked by management to “either get on board or miss out on all the money we’re making”. I sent a corporate wide email about the goings on and went to an appointment. When I got back my office was cleaned out and I was escorted out of the building. This happened 2 weeks after the 9/11 incident in 2001.

LESSON ONE
I say all of this to say that after 3 years and 3 jobs with 3 corporate copier companies, I learned that, though I found a great deal of pride, self esteem and value in what I learned I was capable of doing in sales for these companies, I cannot rely on them to be my source. They might be A vehicle through which I receive what GOD has for me, but ultimately if I am looking to THEM to be my source, I will be disapointed.

After leaving the third company I was so disenfranchised by the “corporate” situation that I decided to start my own company in the copier industry. I was going to become “A Consultant” for MY clients. Offering them the advantage of my VAST 3 years of knowledge and experience (LOL) in finding the products and services they needed from the marketplace, and then help them get them at wholesale prices. Like a realestate agent, I would be the buyers agent in finding the products they needed AND the sellers agent in representing the products and services; but my fiduciary responsibility was first and foremost to the buyer. It was a great idea but my timing couldn’t have been worse. I did this right after the 9/11 attacks of 2001 and as a result, consumer confidence (especially in an upstart company)was not real high. No body was buying anything, certainly not from me. In the 6 months that we were able to maintain an active business, I found one client. Because I did not have the ADMINISTRATIVE and SUPPORT Team in place to ensure that EVERYTHING was handled properly, we made some mistakes on the account and were named in a lawsuit from the client.

LESSON TWO
The value of a SUPPORT System and Administrative Team to assist in the things I can’t do. I came to realize that I can’t do everything ALONE! I would need to connect with people whom I could depend on to help me and whom I could work with to build a business.

After filing bankruptcy I went back to school to get my teaching degree. While I was there I ended up choosing to NOT go into teaching, but I took a lot of classes on teaching, the psychology of teaching and Theatre classes; I wanted to open my own school of the arts that would teach it from a biblical world view. I found myself bumping into obstacle after obstacle, mostly financial, that kept making it more and more difficult to do what I wanted to do. As a result I had to drop out from school and go back to work, but during my time there I discovered something that really enlightened me.

I had been taking class after class, “learning” things. But what I found interesting was that I wasn’t learning anything I didn’t already know. However, I was now being required to write papers about it and READ books about it and understand the PRINCIPLES behind the facts that I knew!!! I was learning how to LEARN and how to WRITE!

LESSON THREE
The value of education and being willing to Learn something YOU don’t know, OR maybe feel that you already KNOW!!! I think I can best sum up the value of this lesson in 5 question I now ask myself and other people.
1. Do I know everything?
2. If I knew everything (or at least more than I do now), would it help me to change my life?
-noone can know everything, but I can get closer by learning the parts of everything I don’t know.
3. If someone knew something that I didn’t know, would I want to learn what they know?
4. If I learn something that challenges the way I think, am I open to changing the way I think?
5. Am I willing to Do WHATEVER IT TAKES to change my LIFE?

http://www.cshughes.com C.S. Hughes

Mark S: man awesome stuff! Thanks again for sharing. CSH