This time for real. I got laid off today from my first financial institution job here in sunny San Diego. It was an experience. I learned a little bit about being more professional and a little more about the importance of details.

Every single job experience you have to take things from. There are small subtle shifts that you have to at least acknowledge. If you don’t, there will never be an opportunity to grow. So I take it on the chin, and move on.

As usual, I am awe of the people I worked with. Hard working, diligent, attention to detail, always much, much more than the sum of their parts or their titles. Some people just have the thing and the more we elevate them the better off we are. So? H and Y and A and L. You know who you are. You know I appreciate you.

As for me, I go back at it. Back to the sometimes difficult, sometimes humiliating process of searching for work and applying. My 9 years in San Diego have not been easy for me. There have been more jobs here in 9 years than the 15 before in New York. Networks matter. Ecosystems matter. When you are out of your game, it sometimes doesn’t come back. Sometimes it takes time to find that right groove again. But we go again, and we try again…

I will say this, the big change this time is have a level of faith, that I never had before. I have deeply embraced my faith and it has come with the huge dividends. I no longer feel like I have to be the only protagonist in my story. There is another, higher, and more meaningful protagonist. I am serving this protagonist and am grateful every day.