Tis the Season for Entrepreneurs

In Deck the Halls with Pink Slips I discuss the November round of layoffs at several big companies, including RealNetworks, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Time Warner / AOL, Sprint Nextel, Electronic Arts and Pfizer. Of course, part of what brought these to my attention is that a dear friend of mine got caught in the pre-holidays cut-backs that also took place at Adobe.

Even worse, however, was the fact that my friend loved working at Adobe. It was the first time she'd worked for a large company, so some of the perks that big company people take for granted -- training, resources, perks, etc. -- were all relatively new to her, and she was taking advantage of as many of them as possible.

I got to thinking about the hundreds of people who got the ax: what that meant to their holidays, their lives, their plans and their next steps.

Since a great many of the layoffs were in my hometown of San Francisco, it's unfortunate to realize that the already over-whelming glut of talent on the market is now going to be competing with an even larger pool of newly "free" talent for an extremely small number of jobs. Especially as we head into the end of the year, where many places are in a holding pattern until the beginning of Q1 (though, admittedly, many of those who do not intend to bring anyone on until after the first of the year, will be looking and identifying their new hires now).

I wonder how many entrepreneurs have just been unleashed. Maybe they are people who have wanted to start their own business for a while, but who weren't ready to walk away from a steady paycheck to make it happen. Or how many are like me: reluctant entrepreneurs responding to circumstances first and foremost.

I look back on this past year, realizing that my journey has landed me somewhere I never imagined: happily self-employed. I certainly didn't start out that way. I fought it, kicking and screaming, making my husband crazy, making myself miserable, worrying my friends and family, and generally resisting being knocked out of my comfort zone.

And now I wouldn't trade it for the world. I don't want to work for anyone else, and I can't think of anything less appealing.

My holiday wish for the people who found themselves on the receiving end of some holiday uncheer is that they find the courage to take advantage of the opportunity. The era of big business is over. Now is the time to either start your own business or join someone else's startup. And if you can do it while you're still getting a severance, then even better: let your former employer help pay you to get a new business off the ground!

Much to my surprise, this appears to be the road that my friend is currently traveling. For the decade that I have known her, she has always been the go-to person for event planning for all of her friends, family and employers. Ranging from company parties to weddings to my own 30th birthday bash, she always found herself getting involved (and usually taking over) all the planning logistics for any type of event possible. And she loved it. We all knew she loved it and have spent years talking about how she should be doing that for a living, instead of being a technology industry project manager. The circumstances were never quite right, though, until Adobe laid her off.

And within two weeks of being laid off, already antsy and bored, she went out and found some local charities to do some volunteer work, and within another week she was in the middle of planning both of their big holiday galas. Within the past week she's had people offer her every type of help imaginable, to get her own event planning business up and running. In less than a month, she has gone from being laid off, to bored, to engaged, to invigorated, to launching a new business doing something that she's always wanted to do. What better Christmas gift could she have asked for herself?

Self-employment isn't for everyone. But I do believe that, for those of us with a strong inclination to take charge (and/or a strong aversion to following directions from others), eventually the opportunity will present itself and, given the right circumstances, it'll prove a far more enjoyable road than the same-old-same-old.