There have been days in which I felt like giving up. The stress and pressure of every day life can be overwhelming at times. Especially when it feels like the odds are against you and life is not going your way or how you expected it. At one point, there was a season in which my goals were not accomplished, and my dreams were in complete stalemate mode. It was as if I was on a purging season.
For example, in 1995 I was working for a popular technical company and was successful in starting up this technical business in a new area of the United States. I hired over 60 people in the first phase of opening this company. As the years progressed the company had grown from 60 people to over 2000. The company was at its highest level of success with raving reviews from customers and the technical industry. All was going great, and I just knew nothing would stop rising success.
Then in 2002, what took 5 years to build took 30 minutes to collapse. I walked in the office and there were police cars, news media and police dogs in the parking lot! When I went in, I asked my colleagues what was going on. They said they didn’t know but heard there is a huge meeting in the auditorium. As I was walking towards the auditorium, I witnessed a line of attorneys with brief cases rushing and walking quickly down the hall. Also, my employees asked me what was going on because they were not receiving any technical trouble shooting calls. I knew at that point that something had changed because it was a peak technical support high call volume timeframe and to have hundreds of employees sitting around waiting for a call was unusual.
I went to the meeting in the auditorium, and it was then when our director read a letter from the CEO of the company telling us that they appreciated our service, and our jobs will end in two hours. Then we were told to tell our employees to meet in the cafeteria (which was the largest room to have a grand meeting) as soon as we walked into the technical support call center. As I was on the way to the technical support contact center, I stopped for a moment and counted down from 5,4,3,2 and then 1. I knew that I had to change my face expression as I walked on the “stage” of the technical support call center because my employees were accustomed to reading my face expressions. When I walked out, I had a normal business face expression not trying to give away the news before it’s time. I asked all of my employees to meet in the cafeteria in 10 minutes.
As all the employees arrived in the cafeteria, the announcement was made that they were being laid off and had two hours to gather their belongings and head down the hall as the attorneys gave them information about their severance package. After the announcement, there were people running back into the call center grabbing their items and there were people taking items that wasn’t their items and paper was flying in the air! There were a few people that walked over to me in the chaos and thanked me for giving them a chance to grow and had been promoted. Then there were others that were crying and saying that they had just bought a house. A few other employees collapsed, and we had to call the paramedics.
Since I was one of the individuals that built that company from day one I was allowed additional time to gather my items and was next to the last person to head out of the building. As I was heading out of the building, there was a news crew that ran up to me asking about what happened. With my plant in one hand and my box of office items in the other, they filmed me on camera as they asked a series of questions. At that point, I wanted to collapse, and I even had one reporter asked me if I was going to cry. I assumed they wanted me to show emotion on the news which probably would have made the story more compelling. However, I did the opposite and said all great things about the company. I even thanked the company for the opportunity to grow my experience.
After the interview, I had heard there were colleagues that saw me on the news and was upset. They wanted me to say harsh things about the company. I chose to use that moment to go high during a low moment. And, right after that interview I packed my items in my trunk and went to church (Wednesday night service). I realized that what happened was a purging season. The company I worked at for years was preventing me from moving to the next opportunity that God had in store for me. The unknown of not knowing what type of job to pursue or if I would be employed before my severance ran out was challenging. It was like everything I thought I knew had changed which was a purging season.
Well, a few months later I received a phone call and obtained a job that way paying more than the job I lost. During the interview for the new job, I was told my new job remembered me from the news story that was aired months prior, and they were impressed with my stamina and tenacity to be positive during a negative time.
I got the job, and it was bigger than what I had ever expected! If I would have collapsed during my purging season, then I would have given up and not even applied for the job! What as ironic and a subtle reminder, the new job just happened to be across the street facing the building where I used to donate plasma in order to raise money for groceries (this was after the severance ran out while I was still looking for employment). It was as if God showed me that I need to trust Him, never give up and to keep moving forward during my purging season. And, to use my purging season as a reminder that something bigger and better is coming right around the corner if you don’t give up.
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