Help!  We need somebody.  Help, not just anybody.  Help!  You know we need someone.  HEEEEEEEELP!

It’s a tough life as a person.  Sure, there is a whole lot of good out there.  Puppies.  Rainbows.  Children.  Milkshakes.  Sausages.  Flowers etc.  It’s important to remember that and focus on the good, but if we’re being honest:  it’s a tough life!  Trying to make a living and support yourself and your family in this day and age is difficult.  Gone are the days when you could have just one job and live comfortably on that single job.  Most of us require a series of contract jobs to make ends meet.  They don’t’ last forever, and then you find yourself looking for the next job.

Finding that next job can be hard.  Sometimes it is nigh impossible!  There was a time when you could open the want ads in your local paper to find work… but have you looked in the newspaper classifieds recently?  Let me save you thirty seconds:  there’s not much there.  So that leaves Craigs List… but you always run into the danger of crazy there.  So how about any of the sites you can pay to post your resume to and hope someone finds it there?  Or maybe the sites that you can pay to send you auditions?  Or how about the sites you can pay to find you work?  It seems you could spend more money LOOKING for work than you may actually make DOING work.

Sigh.  But what other alternative is there?  Surely you couldn’t ask a friend for help or take help when it is offered could you?  What about your pride?  Gasp.

Pride?  Swallow it.  Pride does nothing but get in the way of you eating and having a roof over your head.  There is nothing wrong with asking for and accepting help.  Maybe I’m just talking to myself here, but I have a suspicion that it is more than just me who needs to hear this.  DON’T BE AFRAID TO TAKE HELP!

It seems that just applying for work is no longer good enough.  You have to network, know people, ask favors, give favors and be willing to move in any direction to get work.  If you are too proud to take the help that is offered, you are tying both hands behind your back while your competition is getting an extra hand up.  Use the extra hands, man!

It’s hard to swallow your pride; I get it.  It’s hard to take a job that you consider beneath you.  If you are an artist, it’s hard to take a job waiting tables to make ends meet.  If you are a lawyer, it’s hard to take a job as a clerk to work your way up.  It hurts your pride to not be able to get a job in the field that you trained in (theatre degree anyone?)  But guess what?  You have to do it.  One day you will move up into your field, but until then you have to eat.  Help comes in all shapes, sizes and forms; so don’t ignore it when it comes.

The caveat here is that you need to be ready to pay back that help when the time comes.  Seek and give help… because we are all in this together.  So come on in for a hug… that’s it… feels nice doesn’t it.  Now… can I borrow a dollar? 

I will be out of town next week teaching at schools on the east coast (thanks to Salisbury U. and University of Mary Washington) so there will be no blog.  See you in a couple of weeks!