You do have control over your reaction to them, and how they shape your future.

I can think of no better example of this than Rae.

Your six points were spot on and hopefully a wake up call to everyone that wants to whine about how “bad” things are today with the economy.

Life doesn’t come with a box of kleenex to whipe snivelling noses with.

As for Oprah, it’s fun to see so many Oprah haters. There’s no reason to hate though. Riding Oprah’s coat tails is a freakin easy way to do trend marketing. You can be a lazy suck bastard and still make money watching Oprah.

Then again, to do this you have to actually work a little, get ahead of the crowd, and have something to say. Or you could just slap up some flogs and pretend to be a mommy that lost 35 pounds with the acai and colon cleanse that Dr Oz and Oprah “recommended”…

But even that requires work.

Lisa – a GREAT piece of bait here.

Good Comment, BTW, Rae.

Lisa was in NO WAY saying that EVERY person out of a job or having financial trouble is in that situation because of their own fault. You can’t control cancer, you can’t control (in most cases) being laid off and you can’t control your entire industry going down in flames (waves to all real estate agents). But, what you can control is everything after that first six months. Losing your job, someone getting sick, your industry being eaten alive – at some point you have to TAKE CONTROL and move things in the direction you want them to go.

Those of you using fake names to tell Lisa what a bitch she is and hoping she loses everything – well, you’ve obviously failed to take control after the first six months and hate her for taking away your excuses – deal with it.

“Not everyone has a college degree, not everyone is born with the same opportunities, not everyone has the time to…” seriously? EXCUSES.

I don’t have a college degree and barely got my high school diploma (I actually have a GED). I come from a broken home, with a family that could fill any daytime talk show. I was out on my own at 16 (no shit) and was working two jobs (sales clerk at a mall store during the day and a Waitress at night) so that I could eat (and thus why I have a GED instead of a high school diploma). I was married at 19, had my first child at 21 and he had a massive stroke soon after. He is severely multiply handicapped and then I had two more children before my 26th birthday. Ten dollars was a thousand to me back then… my ex husband made 35K in a good year. I had no formal education, no money and “extra time” was not in surplus. I have every possible excuse to hate Lisa and be on welfare. But I’m not. Cause I decided not to be.

Very few people in this world have no choice except to accept what has been handed to them (my oldest son, unfortunately, is one of them)… the rest of you, especially if living in North America have the world at your fingertips. For those of you saying “Wake up little girl, not everyone in the world knows how to make money online nor do they have friends that will help them out to get a new business going” – you know what? I could easily make a point to post your message (had you had the balls to sign your name to it) on every message board where parents of children who fight to lift their head daily hang out so they can see you whine about how helpless able bodied 40 year olds with years of experience and talent are.

It’s all about PERSPECTIVE. Lisa was trying to give people some so that a few of them might do what I did ten years ago and say “you know what? I want more. And I CAN get it.”

Patronising those who work hard, have families to provide for, but through no fault of their own have suddenly found themselves a statistic has to be one of the cheapest and lowest shots I’ve seen – but then, what can you expect from an ‘internet marketer’? If you hadn’t noticed entire industries are being wiped out because of the actions of money-greedy people like yourself.

Well here’s some poisonous invective for you : I really hope you lose everything, see how it bloody feels!

Even before I owned my own business I’ve always had a rule when it came to being out of work, which happened twice. I spent the weekend after being layed off in a pity party, give myself 48 hours to feel like shit and that’s it. From that point on every morning I’d get up like I was going to an office.. spend 2 hours doing job search activities (job sites, networking etc) and follow up on anything fruitful. When that was done the next 7 or 8 hours were dedicated to either learning something, working on opensource software, or doing volunteer work. Of course, if the phone rang or an email came in for a job I’d follow up. I came out of my breaks in employment stronger and ready to go. Interestingly, the volunteer work always made it seem like I wasn’t on the beach. On more then one interview I referred to it as being on a sabbatical and was able to list what I had done (built these sites for non-profits, learned Drupal, contributed these modules to these projects).

All that said I have to admit to discussing the Oprah and Ashton effect. Less out of gossip and more because it impacts a project I’m on these days.

And BTW, I think Ashton’s Twitter stunt is brilliant brand-building and everyone is just jealous they didn’t think of it first. The man has become a media powerhouse in a matter of days, and has everyone talking about him. Kudos Ashton. And who cares if his raising money for charity is self-serving…isnt that always the case?

Being productive, learning new things and offering up something to world is the way to get something back. Re-brand your reality. Use your clever marketing techniques on your situation and start seeing the opportunities.