Words to Live By

"No one likes a sore loser". Lessons learned on the playground of our youth still hold true in adulthood and business. For some, easier said than done, especially when security is hovering over you while you pack your boxes. There is an inner desire to take your "Employee of The Month" award from two years ago and "regift" to your now former boss in perhaps not the most subtle of manners. And while you might be forgiven for an impetuous action in a moment of stress, "remember the time that guy went ballistic" becomes your legacy. A newly minted stay at home bachelor© hopefully would have handled the situation more wisely and tactfully (which of course would have been the first signal he could be accepted into the brotherhood). The person firing you today could be rehiring you tomorrow, or at least providing a reference.

And it doesn't get any easier from there. For the next several months the same question keeps coming, "so what happened?". "I got screwed" and any other variation of said theme is just not an acceptable response for a stay at home bachelor©. No one wants to be around, or for that matter, hire an angry person. Maintaining a level of dignity, respect and decorum about your situation is critical to maintain proper social and business standing. Being a stay at home bachelor© means that you can take it on the chin and deal with a momentary setback. A stay at home bachelor© knows that living well is the best revenge, and that is what we intend to do (more on that in future post). So, yes, please continue to invite us to cocktail and dinner parties, we won't be the downer in the corner. Please continue to consider us for employment, we won't poison the well.

I was inspired to write this post by Jim Caldwell, the coach of the the Indianapolis Colts. Moments after losing the Super Bowl, perhaps the most important game in his life and one in which his team was heavily favored to win, microphones were thrust into his face and reporters asked for his reaction to the loss. With over 100 million people watching and expected some time honored sports cliche about how the better team may not have won today, the stoic rookie head coach instead invoked the words of 19th century poet William Ernest Henley's poem, Invitcus (yes, that is where the movie got it's name) when he said, "our heads are bloody, but unbowed". Simple, dignified, graceful. Now those are words to live by.

The StayAtHomeBachelor©

For a full text of Invictus: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/invictus/