I went to my 20-year high school reunion this past weekend. It was a rough week for me. I quit my job on Monday because they were getting ready to ship me down to Southern California and I didn't want to go. That left me without a job, nothing in savings and a wife and child to feed. I panicked but then started making phone calls. After the third call I landed another job in downtown San Francisco. I got extremely lucky. I owe it all to some good friends and a shower. The friends lent a calm ear to me and helped me think things through. The warm shower helped unlock my subconscious and ideas started flowing.
All of this put me in the mood to listen to old friend's tales of survival at my reunion. There was the friend who went down to Mexico and worked as security for a mining company, met his wife there but now sells real estate in Salt Lake City. There was the friend who developed housing in Palm Springs but now owns a string of laundramats, he is doing quite well for himself. There were lots of well-to-do lawyers and a couple of doctors. Then there was the opposite side of the coin. There were a lot of divorces, a few single moms and dads without custody of their kids. A few of us had spent time in the slammer for multiple DUIs or stealing. I noticed that, contrary to where I thought I was, I was smack dab in the middle of the class. If there had to be someone who was right in the middle, that person would be me. I grew up in a very Mormon, white school. I had always thought that I would be off -the-scale in comparison to the rest, but I wasn't. I was normal, very normal. My point in telling you all of this is this: survival is the most important thing. We all go about it in different ways. We all have certain traits that either make us have a high or low probability of survival. Often those with the highest probability lead the dullest lives, they have the calmest marraiges, they take the fewest risks. They don't engage in harmful activities like smoking, high speed motocycle racing, cocaine or theft. On the other hand, they probably don't have much fun. They're averse to it. My high school was always a place that consisted of lots of specialized groups (the punks, the Mormons, the mods, the jocks, the partiers, etc.) but somehow we all got along. I somehow had friends in many different groups. I would spend time with one, get bored and then go spend time with another. I learned a lot then as I did again this weekend. Survival is why we are here. It is why life exists. It is life and the answer as to why we are here. It's interesting to have the photograph of life in the form of my classmates of twenty years ago and then compare it to how we turned out (so far). I'm not sure if one survival method is better than another. Situations could also change suddenly which could make one technique that is now effective for survival be later ineffective and vice versa with a technique that is currently ineffective. The key: stay flexible. Situations change but that doesn't mean we can't. We are not our jobs, our religions, our vices, our past. We are managers of our lives and as such we need to be able to adapt.
P.S.I am pleased to report that Plumtree is being acquired by BEA Software. I am happy about this. I have many friends who own Plumtree stock and this will ensure that they get a good price. Previously I had predicted that Plumtree stock would go back to $4 range (it did) but then would drop below $3, lucklily I'll never know if I was right or not.
