[1dundundun]

I was a technical sales manager at a fast growing ISP focused on selling T1, DS3 and "business grade" DSL. The money was good. It felt like we were on top of the world. Embarrassingly, looking back, the movie that best describes our culture/ environment back then was Boiler Room. It's one of Vin Diesel's last movies before becoming a star w/ the Fast & Furious series and it's streaming on Youtube if you're ever interested. Different industry but same vibe. Most of us were recent grads from no name schools. There were also a few dropouts and a few who never attempted college. Depending on where you live, this would be the equivalent of coming out of school in your 20's w/ very few skills to make a doctor's salary almost 20 years ago.

Towards the end, every week for a few months, we'd talk/ read about mass firings or competitors shutting down completely. The writing was on the wall when the CEO brought in the PE guy (who still maintained his role at the PE shop he came from) in as a VP to "tighten things up".I was too young and naive to recognize what that meant but his role was to come in and get the company ready to be acquired or parted out like an old car at the junkyard. Yup, we were being prepared for the slaughter.

That last day was tough. We knew it was coming but didn't know when. Working under that type of environment is a tough feeling to describe. Big cardboard boxes on everyones desk one morning, along w/ an offer to take or leave was devastating & relieving at the same time. I took the offer and used the cash to start a company.

Some never recovered. Some had picked up bad habits (cars, alcohol, coke, fast life) while the money was flowing, making it harder when the cash dried up. I always lived a low key existence. I never appreciated it more than when our world stopped spinning.