What I will remember most about the year 2009 is that it was a year of change…
This change was in nearly every aspect of my life along with change on a national level…

Our country inaugurated a multi-racial president in this year and we are also facing the worst economic struggle since the internet was created.  There have been closures and bankruptcies of some of the most well known businesses and corporations in existence.  Many people in this country have lost their jobs, and the ones that have jobs are not spending money due to the fact that they are scared they may also lose their job.  Added to that, credit lines have been shut off for many people and small businesses, which had access to more available funds in recent years.

For many years I didn’t care what happened with the economy because it never really affected me…  My view on this has changed lately, as the issues above started trickling down, affecting my own business.  In recent times, the web development projects have become more complicated and the money made on these projects started decreasing, as well.

Everyone who has read this blog knows that EastWave has gone through many changes recently, such as:

•    Moving away from web hosting
•    Death of a close family member
•    Marriage to a wonderful woman and part of the EastWave team
•    Converting to Mac as our primary computer of choice

As if that wasn’t enough, changes are still taking place and its only August!!!

Throughout the time that I have run EastWave, I also worked a day job for a large internet retailer in North Carolina.  This allowed me to offer prices to EastWave customers, which were way below professional rates for our level of experience in internet development.  This also gave me stable income monthly in which I did not have to stress about getting the bills paid based on the amount of development projects that our team could finish in a given time period.

The large internet retailer that I was working for also started experiencing the fallout from the recent economic recession.  This culminated with my hours being drastically cut in the last month.  I enjoyed the recent time off as I focused on building and finishing my own network of websites, but the struggles of making ends meet were starting to come into play.

Within weeks, a friend of mine who I previously worked with at a former job offered me a new position within his company doing very similar development work as what I did at my former day job, as well as for customers in recent years.  This new position will allow me to utilize many of the skills that I have learned over the years and apply them towards creating a large network of retail websites that I feel will be some of the best work that I have ever created.  The stars somehow aligned and the right opportunity came along at almost the exact right time.

As I have blogged about in recent posts,  EastWave Media will still be taking on development projects just as we have done in the past, however we will be limiting those services somewhat depending on the scope of the project at hand.

Change is inevitable and there are two potential roads to take when a big change comes your way.  You can either resist the change, or you can welcome the change and push forward.  I have always been the type person that sees the glass as half full instead of half empty, so even when the chips were down as they have been this year, I knew that I would somehow get through it and not only survive, but prosper in the end.

When various doors close as you move through life, always remember that there is another door opening somewhere that could lead to even greater success in the future.  The catch is that you must realize this and not dwell on the past.  The future is unwritten as long as you have the strength and determination to write it yourself.