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What a Difference a Year Can Make
4/23/01
Blaine Parks
It’s
been almost a year to the day since
I walked away from my job at Cisco Systems.
We had just put the house up for sale and begun trying to organize
what would come with us and what would stay behind.
We weren’t sure what lay ahead of us.
Every experience would be new for us. We were trading a 2500 sq. ft. home on 5 acres for a boat
with less than 500 sq. ft. and open oceans.
All the while, I had a few questions nagging at the back of my
mind, “Are we doing the right thing?
Can we really pull this off now?
Should we wait?” We
took a leap of faith and hoped for the best.
Well, it’s a year later and I
can’t find all the words to explain how much has happened in that time. Janet and I have grown closer and have come to depend on each
other for comfort, companionship, and for the safety of our boat.
We’re much closer now than ever before.
Although, we’ve only cruised east coast destinations, we’ve
enjoyed the buzz of waterfront cities, the seclusion of remote anchorages,
the joy of making landfall after a trying offshore passage, and the keen
awareness of being in tune with our natural surroundings.
I even learned how to fish. Amazing!
It has also been a year of struggle.
Not every day comes easy to cruisers and we are no different.
Laundry now involves loading the dinghy with our clothes, heading
to shore, and dragging all our clothes to the closest Laundromat.
It’s not unusual for us to walk a mile or two just to do
our laundry. And, oh how I
pine for a dishwasher again (doing dishes is one of my chores).
Even receiving mail and getting parts for the boat are inherently
more difficult. Once
simple tasks seem to take twice as long.
We watched in horror as the stock
market continued to tumble this year.
Our financial plan included a two-year supply of cash that we
tucked away in a money market fund with the rest of our money diversified
in the stock market. That
single decision has allowed us sleep at night while the market continued
to fall. We invested in
quality companies and felt (and still feel) confident that they would
survive and continue to grow when the economy turned around.
I think we’re starting to see a slight turnaround in the market
now.
Today, all my nagging questions were
firmly answered. I received a phone call from a former co-worker at
Cisco Systems. He and several
other members of my former team had just been laid off.
I didn’t know how to respond.
I never imagined Cisco as a company who would be forced to lay off
their employees. That
could have been me! When I
left, the stock was trading at almost $70 per share.
Today, it trades for less than $20.
Three-fourths of my former team are now out looking for work after
watching their stock options fall below the option price over the last
twelve months, making them worthless.
Cisco isn’t alone. Several
large, profitable companies are finding themselves in the same spot.
If you’re contemplating your own
adventures, let me offer some free advice.
Whether your dream is to sail around the world, take a walk-about,
or just spend more time with your family; do it now or as soon as you
possibly can! There are
no promises for tomorrow. My
friends have just found out the hard way.
If I had stayed I probably would’ve lost my job in these
lay-offs. Janet’s previous
employer shut down her office just as we were leaving.
And then there was the stock market crash.
Waiting just one year, this last year,
would have completely erased our chances of following our dreams.
Instead, we have a simpler life with more time to share with our
family, friends, and with each other.
We’ve replaced working for others with working to keep our home
afloat. And more importantly,
we’ve faced our fear of the unknown and come out better for it.
Looking back, we can’t imagine ourselves in our previous roles.
This new life just seems so natural for us.
Oh, what a difference a year can make.
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