Summary: In this episode of the CIO Playbook I continue my discussion of how to set yourself up for success in 2013. Laying the groundwork for setting goals that will enable you to hold your mojo regardless of the times you are facing. In 2007 and 2008 things had begun to change as business that used to provide income to the 150 year old began to struggle. I shut down many of the very businesses not a year earlier we had built as the markets for their products began to disappear. As we laid people off I managed to continue to evolve and add value to the organization and that is what triggered the move to Hong Kong. Unfortunately in September of 2008 Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. It was surreal watching things unfold in the United States from Hong Kong and realizing rather quickly how much I had relied on the company I worked for. Suddenly I and my family were alone in a foreign country. A country that was happy to have me there as long as I was working and paying taxes. As soon as I was no longer working the visa system only gives you a few weeks to find another job or you must leave. There is no desire to have unemployed foreigners as a burden to the rest of the country. Things looked very bleak indeed. I watched as individuals whose only job had been with Lehman some as many as 17 years lose “everything” they were banking on. They lost retirement investments plus deferred compensation, and untold stock in the company. I watched as the fell into self-destructive behavior, failed marriages, and even career destroying moves. Much of this continued even after Nomura Securities came in and purchased the Lehman assets giving the majority of us jobs. The answer to how we deal with loss is not a simple one. I have heard of the Kubler-Ross model or the five stages of grief: Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance This is a hypothesis introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross is theoretical model that can be applied to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). Such losses may also include significant life events such as the death of a loved one, major rejection, end of a relationship or divorce, drug addiction, incarceration, the onset of a disease or chronic illness, an infertility diagnosis, as well many tragedies and disasters. A large part of our educational training at the university level is case studies where we look a firm in a particular situation. We are given a set of facts often putting the firm’s management in difficult situations and as students we given a particular management role and then asked, "What would you do?" each of us was expected to respond with our best solution. Our answers were not always correct or reasonable or even possible, however, we always came up with some reasoning for our idea and a way to act. At no time did any of us answer the question with we will sit and wait for the situation to change. I have a daughter who is a freshman at Cornell University and she has described to me many of her case study scenarios, so I know university level education still employs this method of teaching, and not one of her answers was to do nothing and let the situation play out. However, that is what a lot of the highly educated and successful traders, managers, and staff did; in other words they did the opposite of what they were trained to do in school. They refused to accept the situation has changed dramatically and things were not going to go back to the way they were. When we leave school and embark on our careers it is important to continue to grow and seek improvement. While at the same time continuing to question the path we are on. Will we be always right, regrettably no. However, that should not freeze us in our tracks. Just as we learned in school we are in control. In the book the practical neuroscience of Buddha’s Brain happiness, love and wisdom, Rick Hanson says, “Only humans worry about the future, regret the past,
