John Beales

Early this year I finished reading Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat. My sister had given it to me and I talked about it to almost anyone who would listen while I was reading it – I enjoyed it that much. One of the people I talked about the book to was my sister, and she gave me the follow-up, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, (the 2.0 release), for Christmas, and I recently finished reading it.

In Hot, Flat, and Crowded Mr. Friedman starts by laying down the law on why we have to do something about global warming, and why we have to do it now. Once he’s done that he shows you just how much we can do, right now, to reduce global warming, and how incredibly huge the business opportunities are for the people and organizations who build their businesses and lives around sustainable, green, practices.

I was inspired reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded. It made me want to act, to do something, right away. Since reading it I’ve been trying to reduce my impact on the environment even more than I was already, and I was already trying to do a lot, (or a little, depending on how you look at it). Yes, the climate as we know it is really threatened right now, but the changes that we’re going to have to make present an opportunity like has rarely been seen in the world, and it’s up to us to seize it.

Want to read it yourself? Get it from one of these places and I’ll receive a small kickback:

Amazon.com (USA) Amazon.ca (Canada) Amazon.co.uk (UK)

It is the dawn of the 2009 working year.  After spending a few days celebrating the new year, I spent the morning going through my inboxes, answering E-mail, and seeing what some bloggers out there have written over the past few days.  In NetNewsWire, I discovered Goldfish, by Greg Storey.  Greg suggests that in 2009, a year when many good designers, coders, and everything in between are losing their jobs, those of us who are fortunate enough to have more work than we can handle ourself should spread some of the wealth by hiring or sub-contracting to those who have lost their jobs.

In this new year,  it is simply not going to be enough to just meet your bottom line, but to help others who may not be in a position to be so entrepreneurial or carefree.

There in the comments on Greg’s post, there are commenters who are having a rough time and commenters who are still doing well.  To those having a rough time, reach out to those who are doing well, it is likely that they will have some work that needs doing.

I have work that needs doing, more than I can comfortably do myself.  I do a lot of development in collaboration with designers and occasionally take the lead on various projects.  If you are an (X)HTML/CSS, PHP, or Flash developer, give me a shout.  If you are a designer, I may need your skills too, so you should also give me a shout.  You can use the contact link on this page, (look up), or E-mail me at john at johnbeales dot com.

2009 has the potential to be the worst year ever, but it also has the potential to be the best year ever.  Tough times lead to change and opportunity.  Seize the opportunity.