The last company I worked for as an employee, Techrigy, got acquired last week. It was interesting assessing my response to their apparent good fortune because I think they are geniuses and built a really great product (social media monitoring software). On the one hand my stock options hadn’t vested when I left so I didn’t participate in the largess, which isn’t actually that large and will take quite a while to become real. On the other hand I feel good about marketing them from 1 customer to 30+ customers in less than 10 months with no budget. If you’ve been in a start-up you know how important this is. They spent nearly three years working without salaries to get to the point where they are now.

So I guess me working for a few months on my little project makes sense!

Back to work.

Fortunately Seth Godin has taken his usual way of changing perception and applied it to the work model. Work is going to mean assembling your skills, experience and connections and creating a package that others will pay for. For example I’m building (on a wiki platform) a site that contains everything in Rochester’s waterfront neighborhoods: Real estate, parks, shopping, sights, restaurants, services- everything. When I’m done I’m going to invite residents of these neighborhoods to write about their area.

Once this ‘package’ is complete I’m going to sell exclusive access to it to an area real estate firm or broker. They’ll appear on all the pages as a link to learn more about buying or selling a waterfront property in our area. Leads for these properties are worth a lot of money. You’ll be able to find it at WaterfrontRochester.com. I also own WaterfrontFingerLakes.com and several other cities. They’ll get packaged up too.

The Recession and its downsizings have forced all of us to think differently about work. Those who understand this change and jump right in will do very well. Those who cling to the idea that their old jobs will somehow come back will not.

There is almost always a buying option that delivers the same features and capabilities at half the price. Buying a 3 year old car coming off a lease is a great example. With less than 36000 miles this is practically a new car. Housing is another example- very often the same house in a neighborhood perceived as being less posh but actually no different in amenities and quality of life can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I really don’t think there is an exception to this rule. In our society we are trained by marketing to buy based on desire and status and this results in recessions like the one we’re experiencing right now. When we want something so bad that we mortgage our lives to get it we are likely to eventually crash and burn. When we collectively mortgage our society to get things we don’t need, society will eventually crash and burn.

For most people, by the time we hit our forties we pretty much have everything we need. We’ve been accumulating both necessities and luxuries for over twenty years. It’s now time to look at what we have and what we want and make adjustments. Get of rid of things you don’t need. If there are things you always wanted to pursue like learning new skills or traveling, then look at what you spend your time on and adjust so you find the time you need to follow those pursuits. Downsize anything you can and put the dollars you save to working improving your life.

It’s not rocket science. When I moved to a less expensive but nicer apartment I realized a lot of things. I wanted to go to NY more often to see art and enjoy the city. With the money I save on rent and utilities I can add a NY trip in six more times a year- or travel for a month! This is an incredible improvement in my lifestyle without spending any more money.