Brexit – Career Calamity or Your Biggest Ever Opportunity?
I’ve just returned from the USA, having travelled to Louisiana for the wedding of my eldest son. The wedding was wonderful, full of emotion and love, the very best type of heartache but that’s not why I’m writing. I’ve been fortunate to get to know many wonderful Americans over the last ten years or so that have been coming across to the UK, paying a lot of cash from their own pockets to help out a disadvantaged community in South Wales reeling from the tragic suicides of many young people.
Those wonderful people have become close and trusted friends and the majority of them are hard-working, right of centre in their political thinking and amazing human beings but again I digress from the point of this article.
The reason I’m writing is that nearly every one of them was curious and wanted to know more about Brexit and what it would mean to us Brits. Now, I haven’t got a crystal ball and if I knew what was going to happen to our wonderful country at the end of the Brexit process, I could make quite a lot of cash advising Mrs May as to the way forward!
Trump – Opportunity or Threat?
Whilst chewing the political cud with my American friends, it became more and more apparent that our two countries are in a similar fork in the road and seem to be taking diverging paths.
I was equally curious to ask about the impact of Trump, his policies and the media. The vast majority of people I spoke with were very unhappy with the public communiques of Mr Trump and wished that someone would take control of his Twitter fingers. On the whole though, they loved the impact of his policies, the additional cash in their pocket, the investment being made in their local economies and the jobs being created.
The main issue they stated was that they just got on with things, didn’t bleat or complain about anything or make huge political points, they were simply getting on with their lives and making the best of what was a golden, perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity. This is where Trump gets his support from, the quiet majority of right minded people, just getting on with their lives.
The Media Are All Biased, particularly in the USA
One thing that struck me hard over the last two weeks was that the American media has changed. On previous visits to the US, I found that there were opposing political views being voiced on the television in public spaces such as restaurants, airports and other public buildings and that has changed, radically, in less than 6 years.
Waiting for an internal flight ten days ago, I was bombarded with Liberal leaning, Trump bashing vitriol pouring out from multiple television sets in the departure lounges. A ticker clock running across the screen showed the ongoing length of the Government shutdown and without exception, the media was hostile towards Trump.
I am not biased nor in any way a Trump supporter; however the lack of balance was alarming. There was no attempt to voice anything positive about the Republican party at all. Everything was Trump bashing, liberal supporting, Democratic loving left wing bias. Even the strong economic news was tarnished with an editorial diminishing the strong economic performance.
Brexit – Career Opportunity or Threat?
This got me thinking about Brexit, the effect it has had on me and my thinking and how it has affected my business. On balance, most of the media I look at (mainly the BBC) is pretty impartial. There are times when over the last few years that my entire day has been occupied with me thinking about the effects of Brexit. In short, it has slowed me down but no longer.
Will there be threats from Brexit? Of course. Will there be opportunities? Of course there will.
In the Midst of Chaos, there is Opportunity. This quote by Sun Tzu from ‘The Art of War’ rings hard and true in my innermost being at this present time.
There are huge opportunities for people in their careers right here and right now. Good people will always be needed. Positive, right minded, clear thinking, problem solving individuals that add value to the company that they work for are and will always be in high demand.
So if you’re waiting for the right time to make that career move, you’ve got a long wait coming. My advice comes straight from the heart. Take a leaf out of the book of my American friends. Get on with it. You can’t change the political climate on your own but you can make the most of the opportunities that are present. Grab them with both hands as we pass this way but once!
Author: Glenn Hughes
I’m a professional CV writer who also writes website content, LinkedIn profiles, helps people with bespoke job applications and more. I’ve been writing for the internet since 2009 and have many published articles.
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