[~6 Minute Read]

Finding Meaning in Hardship

Most people know about the Twitter Takeover.

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44B in October 2022. (That’s a number I still don’t even comprehend.)

It was really a battle between the Twitter Board, Twitter Executives, Elon, and the legal system.

Employees (and their well-being) were merely collateral damage.

Ultimately, there was so much out of my control with the whole experience. I only had one option: focus on what I can control.

What could I control? My response to hardship.

This didn’t make the experience not suck. But it turned my mind from being a victim of circumstances to a student of life.

For my personal and career progression, it was certainly a crucible of leadership; an inflection point of my growth.

Said another way, it was an opportunity for me to find meaning in hardship.

I don’t share this story because I think I’m special or my story is special. Anyone who has been laid off has a story to tell.

I share this because there are valuable lessons in it for myself, and possibly another person out there.

The Almost Layoff

On November 4, 2022 Elon Musk laid off 50% of Twitter staff. I was fully expecting to be a part of that.

Except, something went wrong. I wasn’t laid off.

At around 3am, I was awake. I don’t remember why; it was probably one of my kids poking me for some reason.

Knowing that the layoff day had come, I searched for a layoff email in my personal inbox.

No email. Weird.

I opened my work laptop. Weird, I still had access to everything.

And that’s when I saw it: a new email from Elon Musk at the top of my inbox.

For some very strange reason, I was sparred from the terrible experience of being laid off and had the joy of continuing to work at Twitter under Musks management.

…but what I felt was quite opposite.

That email, to me, indicated that I had to carry the burden of working in Musk’s Twitter. A layoff would’ve been a sweet release from the chaos I was living in.

Don’t get me wrong: Musk’s Twitter isn’t by nature evil.

Rather, his Twitter was a culturally divisive one.

In his own words, Twitter 2.0 would be “extremely hard core, putting in long hours”.

Being good at my profession is certainly fulfilling, but the only thing I want to be “extremely hard core, putting long hours” into is being the best husband and father possible.

Sorry Musk, clearly we have a cultural difference and we can agree to disagree on how to spend our time during the week. Honestly, best of luck to you but I cannot join you on that path.

But I digress; back to the actual story.

That email telling me I wasn’t laid off was confusing.

Death by Radio Silence

I still remember logging into Slack the following day to see who remained among the carnage.

Fear had settled in throughout the company.