Anticipate Change and Act

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

A lifetime is not a long time and although we like to think of ourselves as immortal, life has a way of showing us how foolish we are to hold that belief. As I read of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, I was reminded that the same is true with many of the decisions we make professionally and personally.

Using myself as an example, I owned recruiting businesses for many years until I realized that the economic climate in New York and nationally made it advantageous to sell my firm and join another. I could have fought on and tried to persevere in the face of business conditions that were “far beyond my pay grade.” I made a decision and it was a good one.

When I met my wife, we bought our first home together on Long Island, a cape on a 60 x 100 lot, about 1800 square feet. if you stretched your arms, it seemed like we could touch our neighbors’ homes (an exaggeration but you get the idea. We lived very close to our neighbors).

About 6 years after we bought the house it had more than doubled in value. I asked myself, “How much more could this house go up in price?” We…