It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed since we faced the boom times that propelled us into the dot com boom and Y2K. Heck we entered the 3rd Millennium and the 21st century.
The dot com boom was created by many factors. My favourite was the direct correlation between the increased consumption of stronger specialty coffees out of Seattle and California and the growth of new ventures and dot com millionaires from the same areas. After my own consumption increased during that time, I stumbled upon countless stories and articles where team and individual successes where in part attributed to caffeine. What a buzz.
Y2K paid for a lot of mortgages and launched many people’s careers. I have fond memories of riding the wave, or rather spending through the wave. Our pony tailed IT Manager at Bassett Laudi coached us on how to prepare for Y2K. Given the inevitable chaos to come, he told us to stock up on water and have a generator handy.
To avoid the looming doom, my young family and I headed down to Isla des Mujeres in Mexico. We took part in the beach side parties and events that heralded a new year, significant not only because of the millennium but because of the island’s northern point being aligned with the planets in such a way that beach combers from as far as Australia came to take part in whatever shift was occurring at sun rise.
Although I can’t say I felt the planetary alignments, I did feel a great sense of relief to note the calm with which we entered into 2000.
We all know what followed; it’s been written and journalised to death. To hi-light the obvious, we saw the dot com implosion, the horrors of 9-11, the devastation of 04’s Tsunami, the demise of Bush’s administration, conspiracy perspectives brought to us by the likes of Al Gore and Michael Moore, market tragedies brought to a head by Shearson Lehman Bros, huge expansions of our global “Green” consciousness, the departures of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett and last but not least Obama and “Obama-isms”, many of which made the new Oxford Dictionary. Let’s not even get into Tiger Woods?
Healing my unforgiving tadalafil generic cheap wounds here in Felsberg, I felt my father’s smile. cialis 5mg cheap This herbal formula is a good choice for patients with seminal vesiculitis. Everybody is aware of the fact that marriage is among the tadalafil uk cheap greatest relations of the planet. In turn, his partner might come cialis 40 mg on sale at site across condition like rejection or inadequate lovemaking session. Looking back, I’d say it’s been a packed decade. I can’t imagine any worse or any better in terms of the highs and lows. There are all kinds of prophecies about 2012 being the end of how we know the world; from Mayan cultures to Nostradamus. The projections I read about 2010 are fairly tame, nothing alarming. All are related to economic recovery, new political landscapes and overall stabilization initiatives as precautionary measures to ensure we reduce fluctuations and the pains of our previous cycles. Perhaps raising interest rates will put some more houses on the market and increase the costs of borrowing, but that’s to be expected.
Having survived a few battles over the past decade, I can’t help but feel a little apprehensive of the plateau that we thinking is ahead for 2010. What will it mean in terms of making a living? What are the real benefits of stabilization? What about all of the unemployed left in the tail winds of last year’s recession, will they all start new ventures or become consultants? Will the “green” movement BOOM in the next decade, will emerging technology practitioners shift their gazes to the new sector? There’s bound to be some shockers ahead.
My recollections of candidate and client reports from Western US visits in ‘99 were filled exclamations like “every Bill Board has a .com address” and “even kids have cell phones” . Looking back, I’m sure analysts are having fun trying to plot out where we’ll take ourselves moving towards 2020.
Here’s to a new decade!
CJ
*http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/04/08/starbucks_economy/index.html
*http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nielsencenter/research/brandcoffeejcr-7.pdf
