I got laid off from my dream job! 🥳

Wow, this year sucked.

Recessions. Layoffs. No Mark-Elon fight.

It's been tough.

I lost my dream job at Meta earlier this year during the Meta layoffs.

After my parents died, I was determined to make them proud by landing my dream job right out of college. So, I did.

My whole life was at work: the friends, the happy hours, the free meals.

It all got stripped away overnight.

Here is the e-mail those affected by the layoffs receive from Meta leadership.

Now that my sob story is over, here's the reality of the situation:

Life changes.

Everything in your life, at some point, will change.

99% of the time, this change will not occur the way you want it to.

Because of this, it is critical that you learn how to handle massive changes in your life.

Here are 3 mantras that allowed me
to accept change.

1) Life always returns to its baseline

When I first saw my acceptance letter from Meta, my life changed.

I felt like I found the Hope Diamond. This was it. I won at life.

I have the money, the prestige, and the lifestyle.

After a couple of months working, the high wears off.

Your emotions soon return back to their baseline.

Your expenses increase as your lifestyle gets more expensive.

One day, you find yourself complaining about the free dinner served at the office.

"I can't believe they served salmon instead of tri-tip!"

(I never said that by the way lol)

I know it sounds unbelievable, but you will always adapt to such life changes: bad or good.

Stake your self-worth and joy in the things that last.

2) Everything has an end date, and that's okay.

As a first-generation African-American, I grew up poor in a single-parent household.

When I was 14 years old, I got my first job as a bagger at a grocery store (Publix).

Too young and poor to drive, I cycled to work on a shitty bike from Walmart.

I lived in Florida, so it was 1000 degrees outside all the time.

I would show up to work drenched in sweat.

I made $7.25 an hour. This is illegal now.

I got treated like absolute shit by customers.

I cleaned shit off the bathroom toilets.

But, I understood that that job wasn't forever.

It was a only stepping stone.

Fast-forward 7 years, and now I am making $220,000+ a year with full health insurance, perks, etc.

The Recession hits and the layoffs begin.

The job market for tech jobs gets decimated, and companies halt recruiting.

Meta fires 13% of their workforce, and I am once again out of a job.

But, I understood that this job wasn't forever.

It was only a stepping stone.

One day, that thing you value most will end, and that's okay.

Allow it to end, because that is the only way new opportunities will show up in your life.

Whether it's a better job, relationship, or hobby. It can and will make it's way toward you if you give it space.

3) Today is a new day.

Wake up.
Go to work.
Stress.
Go home.
Watch Netflix.
Sleep.
Repeat.

This is daily life for 99% of the population.

Days melt into each other; you feel like you're on auto-pilot.

Weeks, months, and years pass by in the blink of an eye.

"Where did the time go?"

Here's the single most important thing you can take from this newsletter:

At any moment, you can change your life.

You can quit that job.

You can start that passion project.

You can ask that person out.

You can break up with that person.

You can hitchhike across the county.

You can convert to another religion.

You can do anything.

Today does not have to look like yesterday in any way. Never forget that.

Failure to understand this will keep you trapped for the rest of your your life.

Understanding this will change you're life forever.

Thanks for reading this edition of my newsletter!

P.S. BIG BIG BIG things coming soon, and you folks will be the first to know :)

P.S.S.

Here’s the FREE  resume templates!

Here’s the FREE online resources I use for technical interview preparation!

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