Oh please.

Don’t insult us.

There’s millions of people who have lost their job in the past few months. How can you even start an article with that title?

Well.
Its true…

I’ll also tell you about the guy who lost his job working at one of the world’s largest banks for the past 15 years.

It was last December and he was terrified and he said to me…

This is the worst financial collapse in history – how am I ever going to get another job?

What if I run out of money?

How will I pay my mortgage?

What about the kids school fees?

He was in tears.

And I’ll also tell you about the call he made to me, only three months later, when he told me that he had been given three job offers and how he needed help choosing between them!

But first, almost four years ago – before people were even talking about financial collapses and at a time when the housing market was in top form and no one had heard of AIG – I was called in to see my own boss…

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“I Don’t See A Place For You In This Organization…”

It was seven in the morning and I had already been in work for almost an hour.

As usual, I had been awoken about an hour before that by the shrieking of my alarm clock.

I had looked with pain at the empty side of the bed next to me (at 37 years old I was single once again) and I’d forced my aching body to roll over and crawl out of the warmth of the covers.

I’d showered and dressed in the pitch darkness – with about three hours until the earliest trace of dawn in the sky (I used to hate that time of the day) – and driven through the empty streets of London to begin my working day.

Leaning over my desk, searching for inspiration amongst the piles of paper work and the detritus of the email that rushed to me daily, my daydreams were rudely interrupted by a knock on the door of my office.

This was strange…

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I was usually undisturbed for at least a couple more hours.

The door creaked open and the guy who was my line manager said sheepishly, the new boss wants to see you…

This was even stranger…

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I’d spent the past fifteen years working as a teacher. I’d taught in London and in Africa and in Asia; I was great at my job and I loved the way I could make such a difference to young people’s lives. And I loved the kids I worked with – here are a bunch of my favorite students from an inner city London school (they’re all now in their 20s!)

But fifteen years of teaching had taken its toll on me.

I had climbed the greasy pole towards more money and better titles.

I had worked for bosses who didn’t like me, didn’t respect me and didn’t see me.

I’d not respected myself; I’d not trusted my intuition; and I’d forgotten how to follow my heart…

And I had moved into a world of management and leadership that had ever so slowly drawn me away from the reason I had started this career in the first place – my love of teaching and working with students.

I’d put so much time and energy into my working life over the years that relationships had strained and suffered.

It was ok – I always told myself it will be worth it eventually… I’d studied for a Masters degree that bored me silly and I truly believed that one day when I finally became the one in charge, I would have a life that I really wanted…

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I’d like you to leave today. Right now.

I felt uneasy as I walked slowly down the corridor. I knocked gently on the Principal’s door. And I got the irony of understanding for the first time how the kids must feel when they were sent to my own office! Now I knew why they tapped quietly. I sensed something was wrong and I hoped desperately that no one would answer.

Gesturing to a seat opposite her, she wasted no time.

I want a new management team. I don’t see a place for you in this organization.

I’d like you to leave today. Right now.

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Tears sprang to my eyes and I asked Why?

Give me a chance… I whispered.

Let me just prove myself for another week…

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WHY?

Who was I kidding? I knew why.

I was working in a job I no longer enjoyed, with people who could sense I didn’t want to be there. In fact, the only reason I was even there (the inspirational boss who I had really admired) had been asked to leave a few weeks earlier.

I wish I could tell you I had dignity in that moment. That I turned around and walked out with a look of disdain or even that I told her what I thought of her and the effect she would have on children’s lives.

Instead I cried like a baby and begged for my job.

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I don’t see a place for you in this organization… came the reply.

I’ll always remember that she didn’t even blink as she looked me directly in the eyes.

And in that moment I decided I am not going to fight this.

I’m not wanted.
I’m going to leave.

I signed the paperwork and too ashamed to even say goodbye to the children I loved so much, I got in my car.

I began the long ride home and I balled my eyes out for the entire journey…

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You Lucky Bastard…

Telling people I had lost my job was one of the toughest times of my life. I desperately craved sympathy and support but at the same time I tried hard to put on a brave face and pretend that I hadn’t been affected by what had happened.

I was ashamed. It took me three days before I could even tell my parents.

And even then I kinda pretended that it had been my choice to leave.

My ego had been beaten to a pulp and my self-esteem was at rock bottom, when three words from my friend Dave changed my life…

I had been making round after round of calls to friends and family, hoping that if somehow I could speak to them before they heard my news from anyone else, I could control their reaction and I would retain some shred of self-respect.

Everyone had advice for me…

Take a break for a week. Apply for a new job immediately. Speak to a lawyer. Sue them!

Or they felt sorry for me. Which was somehow worse.

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And then I called Dave and told him my story.

You lucky bastard! came the reply.

Wow, that threw me.

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But I realized he was right. I had been given an opportunity.

I could rush back into my old career. Or I could do something different.

Something had changed in me after that call and I said to myself that I was going to take a risk and do one thing that I had always wanted to do…

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A One-Way Ticket to Bangkok

I would fly to Thailand and spend time living on a beach. I would exercise and sunbathe and for a while, at least, I would put aside the word career that had driven me for most of my adult life. No commuting. No deadlines. No boss.

I bought a one-way ticket to Bangkok.

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What’s your plan?

My friends and family decided that I was being unconventional but they humored me. I was having a tough time, wasn’t I?

He needs a break, but he’ll be back in a week or two, they assumed.

What really puzzled people was that I had no plans. What are you going to do? they said. I have no idea, came my reply.

The only thing I knew was that I craved a life where I could finally do what I love and do what I want…

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I don’t quite know how I had the guts to make this wrenching change in my life, but as I look back now, I can see that I simply took things one tiny step at a time.

I made a decision that I wasn’t going back to my old life.

I bought a plane ticket…

I took a train to the airport…

I booked a workshop…

I put my house on the market…

I still find it strange, but as I look back on that moment I can now see that I have done what I love ever since.

And I have continued to do it one tiny step at a time…

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I Followed My Heart…

Over the past four years, I have followed my heart – one tiny step at a time. And I have turned old, hidden dreams into reality.

I spent 6 months living on a beach on a tiny island in Thailand.

I learned to teach yoga.

I proposed to a woman I’d met 10 days earlier.

I spent 12 months traveling the globe with that beautiful woman.

I saw gorillas in Uganda, abseiled down Table Mountain in Cape Town and visited Nelson Mandela’s prison cell. I journeyed to the Killing Fields in Cambodia and I sailed around Fiji. I meditated in the Himalayas and I volunteered with children in a slum in India.

I sold my house and used almost all of the money I had to train with the the world’s very best coaches and trainers.

I began to tell people what I do and they began to ask to work with me.

And recently I was asked to give a talk at Stanford University about my experiences.

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These days I help women and men, who are terrified they will be stuck in the same boring life for ever – they begin to make difficult decisions, fulfill their life’s purpose and live more courageously. They live a life of passion, adventure and fun…

And I have amazing clients.

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I know.
At times, I can’t quite believe it myself.

But its true…

Thank God I was Fired!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about three of my clients who were fired over the past year.

I’ll tell you how each of them called me in tears asking what am I going to do next?

And I’ll tell you that I had to remind each one of them that they had said to me months before (in one case, two years before) that being fired would be the best thing for them as it would force them to leave a life that bored and frustrated them…

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* What did you learn? Share your own stories and thoughts – Post a Comment below. I’d love to see you there!

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Rich Litvin
that confidence guy.

Author, Speaker, Confidence Coach, Entrepreneur
rich@thatconfidenceguy.com