Santa and the Secret to Happiness

Warning: the following post contains statements of a philosophical nature and, therefore, are not likely to produce any direct value whatsoever to the reader.

I believed in Santa Claus until the age of nine.  Read on when you’ve finished laughing at my expense... I was old enough to do long division and read at a fourth-grade level, but still believed that some old dude from the North Pole could fly around on a sled and deliver Nintendo systems to kids all over the world in a single night.  The greater shame comes from the fact that my younger brother pulled back the curtain on Santa (and the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy as well).  I felt like Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes.  The resulting emotional collapse was not due to feelings of betrayal, or even embarrassment.  Instead, I felt guilt for having asked Santa for all of those expensive gifts over the years (thinking that his access to low-interest capital was infinite), when it was my parents who received those greedy requests.  I was also old enough to know about layaway – the usual method in which we made purchases in my family.

Sometime during my childhood, I realized what it meant to be grateful.  I was born in the wealthiest, most free country in the world to two loving, highly educated parents.  I would never be drafted to fight a war, die of polio or malaria, or be forced to work in a Dickensian sweatshop.  On the day I was born, I was already in the top 2% of the global population.  I’d have to work pretty damn hard to screw that up (and I’ve tried).  As such, I’ve found that being grateful is my secret to happiness.  As I enjoy family and friends this holiday season (along with a few Christmas Ales), I’ll try to teach my kids that Santa has a credit limit and they should be grateful for what they already have.  I’ll let you know how that goes over with my two-year old. 

Now, one shouldn’t confuse being grateful with being satisfied.  There is always a better solution to a tricky problem, a new approach to technology that can save lives, or a process improvement that saves time and money.   That is what drives entrepreneurs no matter the season.  With 55 open jobs at JumpStart portfolio and client companies,  there are plenty of presents under the tree for which to be grateful.  As 2011 draws to an end, we have a few more to share with you:
 

• SironRx Therapeutics is hiring a Product Development Associate and Clinical Operations Director to help bring to market their treatment, which promotes wound repair and prevents scarring of dermal wounds. 

• SpearFysh is developing an enterprise field sales software platform to help managers and marketers improve results.  They are looking for a QA/Software Tester to help launch in early 2012. 

• Knotice is closing in on their 100th employee (a 40% increase over 2010) with two new openings:  Senior Account Executive and Technical Project Manager.

• Clean Energy pioneer Echogen Power Systems, is hiring a Senior Thermodynamic Cycle Design Engineer.  Say that three times, really fast.

• Software solution provider PreEmptive Solutions is hiring a QA Engineer and Senior Java Engineer. 

• Finally, newcomer Risk Management Technologies, provides web-based software tools that help insurance agencies grow sales and reduce risk.  This Youngstown based company is hiring an ASP.Net Developer.

 
See you next year!