Anniversary

On Tuesday morning I got a text from a friend:

"Happy Anniversary!!! Hope you have a great day! :)"

It was the anniversary of when I started at my job, ten years ago.

In 2001 there were dot-coms that were going belly-up left, right and center. In fact, 11 years ago I worked for a dot-com that did just that, closing its doors of its New York office on December 29 because they couldn't pay January rent. The stock options from that firm were worth less than the paper they were printed on. At our church's White Elephant Christmas gift exchange someone put in their options from this defunct firm - something he'd been given but didn't want!

It was at this time, January of 2001 - in a landscape littered with dot-com corpses - a friend at church told me about a job opportunity. Another dot-com. Sigh. But, I got some advice and ultimately thought this would be a good "day job" while pursuing my own professional organizing business. So I began talking to this technology company that was based in Silicon Valley and starting up its New York sales office. And I didn't get too excited. In fact, when I was offered the job, and they tried to sell me on the stock options that were a part of the compensation, I remember saying, "That's fine, but let's talk about the salary range..."

Irony of all ironies, turns out this little start up did quite well for itself over the years. In January 2001 there were 17 employees in the New York office. Today, there are 2,112. The day job has kept me busy - and interested - as I've learned about operations and real estate over the years. It's been quite an opportunity!

And ten years from now? In 2021? Only God knows... :-)