I Reject Unemployment and You Can Too

Think of this as Volume 15, Number 13 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.

Technically, as of March 3, I have been unemployed for 14 years.

Not that I haven't been working.

I work every day. I have worked at my writing and sought to sell that service. In some years I have done very well. In 1999, I earned six figures. In 2010 I reached nearly $70,000.

For that matter my “job” only lasted 2 ½ years. Before that I freelanced for 11 more years. Employment and work are just not the same thing.

Some years have not been good. My total income for 2002 and 2003, combined? Zero dollars. For 2011 so far? About the same.

The key to survival? I have a love, and she brings in enough to keep us going. We have a life, children, and when I feel tired I warm myself with their dreams, or serve those dreams. I have friends.

I also have good health, which I work harder each year to protect. But even that is less of a barrier to work than you think. I have a friend who has lived in assisted living facilities for many years. He works every day, just as I do.

I have a desk, with a computer, and broadband access to the Web. And that's the main point today.

Lack of income and unemployment are not the same things. Not in the Age of the Internet. No matter how little money you're bringing in, there is no longer any reason for you to be unemployed, just under-used by the market.

What makes this recession different from others isn't its length or breadth, but the Internet's ubiquity. Even during the dot-bomb broadband connectivity cost serious money, and a good laptop a few thousand dollars. Now WiFi is everywhere, it's usually free, and hand-held computers to access it cost just a few hundred dollars.

And there's a lot more online now than there was then. Not just porn, or comedy, or inanity, but knowledge as well. Deep knowledge on every subject under the Sun, and a simple interface for finding any of it called Google. Networking opportunities that are local, national and even international, places where you can have an online home for no money at all. Experts with e-mail addresses, many of whom will respond directly to polite and pointed queries.

You know what the current unemployment rate is among those with a four-year college degree? It's 4.2%. And what those people have from those degrees are merely basic skills, proof that they can write, handle math, understand what they read and (most important) learn new things. The Internet lets you gain all those skills. It also lets you demonstrate your mastery of them.

So this week I want to offer some hints on making unemployment more profitable. If you're in despair they may read like the nonsense of a pollyanna. But it's the despair that is your enemy, not me.

If you have an inquiring mind and some self-discipline, you can get yourself out of the hole. Here's how.

Consider Yourself In Business

This is something I learned from my friend Rob Frankel (right).

You are your own brand. You are a business, in business for yourself. At the end of the day you're the person you need to please. Remember that, always, whether or not you have what some call a “job.”

Choose a dream. Who or what do you want to be? Even when you have no money you do have time. Invest that time in learning the skills your dream requires, the folkways of the business you want to be in.

One of the biggest problems in our society is we don't teach the right dreams. Big money, big fame, and luxuries are the false dream. A day you find fulfilling and engaging, which delivers something of value to others, and therefore brings you enough money to fulfill your human destiny (love, family, belonging) – that's the dream of most of the world. It's one reason why immigrants do better in America than native-born people. They know what dreams are about.

Once you have a dream, a goal you can achieve and drive toward, then don't be afraid of unemployment or even welfare. But understand what that money really is. It's capital. It's the start-up capital of your personal business. It's money you can use to change your life, if you want your life changed.

Husband that capital. Double-up, triple-up, become part of a small community who, if they don't share your dream, at least share the idea of having one.

Network

Just because you have no income doesn't mean you can't work. Laptop PCs today are cheap as chips. Libraries are filled with desktops. With iPads now down to $360 they're going to get cheaper. Make sure yours has a WiFi chip and you're in business.

With this you can study your dream. You can find people who've achieved your dream, and learn their stories. You can learn what skills they needed, the lessons they had to learn, and find places where those skills are available.

As you study you will find people near you whom you want to emulate, or get in touch with. You will be amazed at their willingness to help. Everyone likes talking about themselves, and if you're polite, and well-spoken, they will open up to you.

These people can help you find your path. If you need some formal education they will become your friends and tell you where to get it. If you need a place to start they may help you find that, too.

What is most amazing about the Internet isn't its data, but its connections. Its human connections. Make some.

Be an Immigrant

These are the things immigrants know that you don't. If you can't afford to live on what you have, get a roommate. Get two or three, of four or five. Build a community of honest people who share your values.

It costs very little to cultivate healthy habits. Walk every day. If you're young enough, run. If you live in a “food desert,” surrounded by fast food chains and with real food (fruits and veg, raw carbs like flour and rice, etc.) miles away, well you have a goal for your workout, getting there and back with as much real food as you can carry, for yourself and others.

Do this and you will become a hero. You may find a calling in service. Every faith practices a form of service to others. Helping others will bring you sponsors who will listen to your dreams and help you. If you're honest, if you're sober, if you want to better yourself, they are looking for you. Go to them.

Helping others is also the first step toward helping yourself. If you want the positive self-image that will raise you, it's there in service.

Do What You Do

This may be the most important value the Internet offers the unemployed today. You can do what you do, for a nominal price, then use a full range of social networks to seek a market for your services.

The impact of this has not sunk in yet. In my case, when I'm not writing for publishers I write here at www.danablankenhorn.com. Musicians can post music to their own sites, artists can post art (although that art has very limited reach owing to the obscene copyright demands of successful artists and their agents), video people can post video.

But it also means that engineers can create designs, and demonstrate their own chops. It means that scientists can do experiments, environmentalists can conduct studies and post them. Programmers can help open source projects, writing and debugging code. You don't really need either institutional or employment support to do what you do. In most cases the cost of the equipment needed to create is falling just as the cost of posting the results has fallen toward zero.

Just by being involved in the debate, you can demonstrate that you're more than just a name and a phone number, that you deserve respect. When someone calls you with paid work, they will do it with extensive knowledge of your work background. And if you make that your best work, you'll get the best possible assignments.

We talk a lot about how the Internet has changed the rules of the game in this way or that way. Usually we do it with a jaundiced eye, from the point of view of someone who feels threatened in their own position by what the Internet makes possible.

But look at it from the other side of the microscope. You may appear to be a bug to them, but now you can be seen, you can make yourself known. So put your best self online. You will make that best life happen if you do.