From the Day Lehman Fell Down to Work Philosophy

Although all of us have already known the financial industry is heading to an incredible crisis, no one has expected that day would come in a hasty and astonishing way.

It was a regular Sunday night to me. I poured the last of bottle of wine and randomly browsed TV channels from my comfortable cheap coach. Suddenly, the breaking news on CNN showed a shot at the front of Lehman Brother’s home office in Time Square and reported, "The employees of Lehman Brothers are packing their stuff on this Sunday night, since the company is already full of rumors of bankruptcy. You can see the people are coming in and out right now." The next second, I was dialing my friends who work for Lehman but no one answered. I was shocked!

Most of my classmates and friends in New York who work at many of the big finance companies you may have heard of. And everyone has already sensed this storm for a while. As early as last November, my friends in Credit Swiss and Morgan Stanley already encountered some downsize issues; And then a friend who worked for Bear Sterns was surprised to be affected by the first wave of this terrible crisis in March; Morgan Stanley and Citigroup had reduced their manpower in May; Fannie Mea and Freddie Mac had been bailed out in September; And finally, the 158 years old investment bank, Lehman Brothers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. And of course, as many of my friends might know, my company had played another important role in this catastrophe as well.

I don’t want to address how tragic the economy is right now, nor explain why this disaster happened either. But when I heard many of my good friends have been laid off and left New York, or even, left the US, I started feeling a little bit nervous and being at a loss. The billows of negative economic news are sweeping through every body and every family right now.

Vincent, one of my friends’ brother-in-law, works as a Senior Vice President in a famous finance company for more than 25 years. Every time I meet him, just like every other people in senior positions, he is always busy and works late. But I have never ever heard any complaint about his work from him. No matter how many late nights he needs to stay in office, or he needs to give up some family time for dealing some urgent issues on the weekends, or even when he needs to wake up early or stay late on some international conference calls, he has never said anything bad about his job. When he heard anyone complain about his/her job, boss, or company, he would speak slowly and encourage people to think in bright side: how lucky we are that we still have opportunity to work? Look at those people has limited or bad circumstances to find a decent job. We are lucky enough to contribute ourselves and get some reward back for our lives. We should appreciate the opportunity instead of complaining about it.

I like a phrase in Latin, Carpe Diem ("seize the day" in English.) That means you should appreciate what you have and work hard and play hard right away. Although the global environment is not in good shape, there is terrible news announced everyday, if we cannot change the job or the environment, we need to learn how to appreciate the life which we have and look it on the bright side. To be honest, I have no idea how my job will be affected later, but I think satisfaction will always lead you to happiness. Good luck everyone, being positive and grateful.