Public domain
In Trump's America, even those who got a pink slip with their paycheck can think outside the box, have faith in themselves, and seize golden new opportunities.Welcome to America’s Golden Age! If the Biden-Harris economy resulted in your being laid off or if you are unhappily working in a marginal job that is not using your skills and knowledge, perhaps you’ll be inspired by these stories. In President Donald Trump’s America, we must trust that opportunities are waiting for all of us.
In Joe Biden’s final weeks in office (praise God), he went around lying (nothing new there) that his administration created 16 million new jobs. Joey could have expanded his lies and claimed his administration created 16 billion new jobs since he was using almost worthless Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers.
In October, when still a Florida Senator, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “16 of the last 17 reports have been significantly revised downwards after media helps them with their fake headlines.”
Laid off… downsized… right sized… outsourced… let go… terminated… sacked… furloughed… pink slipped—whatever word used, it means you don’t have a job, which for most people is their primary source of income. The term “pink slip” is said to have come from the days when companies handed out envelopes with weekly paychecks. When there was a layoff, such as at an automotive plant, management put the announcement on a pink slip of paper to be sure it was noticed when employees opened their envelopes.
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Image: Sylvester Stallone (2005). Public domain.
Those who are an employee (be it for a small business or an international corporation) are likely to be laid off more than once during their career. From a change in management to the business being sold to a recession, being laid off happens to even the best of employees.
It happened to my husband and me several times throughout our 40+ years in the corporate world, and we always had each other for emotional and financial support. The exception was during a recession when my husband was laid off from a job, and two weeks later, I lost mine. Within a month, we went from two healthy corporate paychecks with benefits to two pitiful unemployment checks. However, there was a silver lining to our story, which I will share soon.
Financial experts recommend having at least six months of savings in the bank, which Bidenflation made very difficult to do. Bank of America reported in late 2024 that nearly half of all Americans were living from one paycheck to another. BofA defines living “paycheck to paycheck” as needing 90 percent of your income to pay for necessities.
As someone who worked for 41 years in the corporate world and has experienced all the reasons for losing a job, as well as the glory of many promotions and raises, the loss of a paycheck is never easy. I also grew up in a home where my father worked in a “feast or famine” field and was pink-slipped many times due to economic conditions.
Yet sometimes, being out of work provides the impetus to follow a dream, change career paths, or discover a better way of doing things.
In her pre-Harry Potter days, author J. K. Rowling worked in the Amnesty International London office, where she used the company computer to write creative stories. Rowling was fired and lived on her severance while writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first in the series.
Long before he became a household name, Jerry Seinfeld was just another struggling comedian/actor. He was hired for a part in the 1980s sitcom Benson. Seinfeld went home, studied his lines, and came to the studio for the read-through only to discover his part was taken out of the script.
Sylvester Stallone had $106 in his bank account when producers offered him $360,000 for his Rocky script. The caveat was that someone else would play the lead. How many broke people would have turned down that six-figure check? Stallone refused because he was Rocky.
The producers believed in the script and reluctantly agreed to have the unknown actor in the title role. Stallone was given $1 million to produce the movie, which in 1976 was a very low budget for any film. With family and friends in front of and behind the handheld cameras and only one take on most of the footage, the movie was made under budget. Upon its release, Rocky grossed over $200 million and won Best Picture.
And then there’s Brownie Wise.
Chemist Earl Tupper invented “Tupperware” in the early 1940s. His goal was to design an air-tight seal so people could save their leftovers and not waste food. It revolutionized how the world stored, served, and prepared food.
Tupper started by selling his goods in retail stores. But then came Brownie Wise. In the early 1950s, Wise was a poor, middle-aged single mother living in Detroit. She sold Tupperware door-to-door and held parties to pay her son’s medical bills. Compared to other Tupperware saleswomen, Wise was doing quite well. Tupper asked Wise what her secret was, and she told him: Tupperware parties!
Convinced that direct selling was the key to his company’s success, Tupper withdrew Tupperware products from all department stores and retail outlets. The now-famous Tupperware party (which was a social event) became the company’s exclusive form of distribution.
For many Tupperware saleswomen working low-wage jobs, this was a way to supplement their income. For other women, selling Tupperware was their first job outside the home.
Wise became Vice President of Tupperware Home Parties Inc. and went from impoverished housewife to glam queen leader of a multimillion-dollar enterprise. A highly sought-after speaker, the media featured her in women’s magazines and business journals. Wise became an American success story (although Wise and Tupper had legal issues later).
Now, my own story.
After my husband and I were laid of simultaneously, we were determined to have some control over our income stream, even if we remained in the corporate world. We started an independent pet-sitting business (hubby’s idea) where we visited homes when pet parents were away for business or pleasure. The “kids” could be dogs, cats, birds, tortoises, or rabbits.
The business fit our love for animals, especially since our house was always filled with rescue dogs. Moreover, we were dog walker volunteers at a nonprofit humane organization. Eventually, I became their newsletter editor and president. As fate would have it, I also started a long tenure in the marketing/communications department of a pet health insurance company.
During the day, I would sit in my office wearing a nice suit, writing corporate marketing material, and attending important meetings. But before and after work, I walked dogs and cleaned dirty backyards and litter boxes.
A few years later, when my husband was pink-slipped as his department was outsourced overseas, he focused on our pet-sitting business. We achieved our goal of having some control over our income stream.
If you found yourself pink-slipped due to the disastrous Biden/Harris economy or unhappy at your current job, consider this to be a window of opportunity in the Trump/Vance America’s Golden Age. Follow your dream like J.K. Rowling. Or make sure you’re never written out of a script like Jerry Seinfeld. Or write a scenario only you can star in, like Sylvester Stallone. Or devise an ingenious way to sell an existing product/service like Brownie Wise.
Remember President Donald Trump’s soaring nationalistic words during his second inaugural address: “There’s no nation like our nation. Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers.”
Starting on January 20, 2025, we began America’s Golden Age, where all Patriot can write their own scripts.
Robin M. Itzler is a regular contributor to American Thinker. She is the founder and editor of Patriot Neighbors, a free weekly national newsletter. Robin can be reached at [email protected].
