Comments on: For Net consultant, a crisis, then a silver lining

Four-fifths of Steve Borsch's revenue evaporated in two months. But the problem sent the Web communication consultant in a better, new direction.

[directorblue]

Love the obligatory Bush-bashing thrown in for good measure.

None of the financial meltdown had anything to do with the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act... the Clinton administration's HUD Secretary Cuomo and AG Reno's threats to prosecute banks that did not hit mandatory thresholds for mortgages to those whose credit-ratings would not allow normal underwriting... the use of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a piggy bank for Democrat bigwigs like Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, etc...

I've got an idea: let's but Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in charge of the current bailout! What could possibly go wrong with that?

[bdaughtry]

Dang, I thought I was the lone conservative on these blogs. ;-)

Well said and I could not possible improve upon your statements.

[sanenazok]

"pissed at George Bush for his laissez-faire attitude toward regulation" - yeah because if Obama or Kerry were in power they would have prevented the bursting of the housing bubble...right. The article comes close to actually saying a bunch of nothing other than that during an economic downturn small businesses need to cut costs. Thanks, didn't know that. I really like his solutions: send out spam instead of physical mailing. Geez, really, a Web 2.0 consultant, whose services are apparently not all that necessary, was still using direct mail? Maybe he should hire a consultant to create a new website with lots of <blink> tags.

[Penguinisto]

"There are a lot of things you can't control, but what you can control is your reaction to it."

...and Bingo has been called, ladies and gentlemen!

When Intel (or at least my little piece of it) got all panicky and decided to shed contracts (including the one I had there), I was shocked at first.

Now I'm damned glad it happened... it gave me the boost I needed to get out there and start really looking - I found a company that is 10x better to work for (which is tough, since Intel is pretty excellent to work for in and of itself), and I found a much, much nicer salary out of the deal (as in - a 30% raise). To top it off, I got to shed the mountain of policy and bureaucracy that can be endemic to a large corp.

...but that's the trick - instead of complaining when something goes bad, you roll up your sleeves and start looking. I literally found the lead to my current position within hours of being told @ my old position that the contract I had with 'em was going to get killed. (FWIW, my former manager got chucked into the pool less than two weeks afterward... and he was an FTE. IIRC he did find another position as well, though).

I am very grateful that God saw fit to set me up like that, and that I didn't have to spend weeks or months searching about. That said, I never would have found it if I had just sat there and shook my fist, whining and complaining, you know?

/P

[Harrison912]

Thanks, Stephen, for this great article. I too am a conservative and small business owner of a safety and security web site so I'm glad "directorblue" pointed out how the Democrates share the blame for the crunch we're in.

The information here does sort of point out the obvious. There are basically two reactions to this economic down turn; either whine about it and do nothing or, as others have pointed out, roll up your sleeves and do something.

These hard economic times force us to do some of the necessary soul searching, house cleaning and getting down to basics that we should do anyway. It's nice to read about someone who did that and benefited from it.

[lepton80]

Well fortitude is like unemployment benefits--it runs out after awhile.

[Penguinisto]

...only if you allow it.

/P