🛍️ You shop at Taobao and make local people like us jobless!!

How my mindset changed after a year of recession

🚗 Last week I was moving apartments and ordered furniture from Taobao, IKEA and Pricerite.

I chose Taobao for smaller items because it was cheaper and some of the quality was better.

☎️ I ordered bigger items from IKEA and Pricerite because they offered installation for free after spending a certain amount.

When the assembly workers came to my place to install the furniture, they saw some of my unwrapped boxes from Taobao.

💬 They asked if I ordered from Taobao to confirm their assumptions.

I said yes.

💥 They got mad and said

“Because more and more people like you order items from Taobao and spend money at other places, you make workers like us in Hong Kong jobless!!”

☔ That moment I was hurt because no one wanted the economy to be bad.

But at the same time, I realise that changes are inevitable.

⛱️ When the economy was good in the past decade, I was happy doing enough and not working harder to make the most commission.

⛱️ When the economy was good, I got promoted quickly and easily.

Sometimes I would wonder - is it me or is it purely based on the good economy?

I was comfortable with doing just enough and not improving myself and I guess I made the same mistakes as others.

Not improving during a good cycle and only panicking during bad times.

🌧️ The economy has been bad since Sep 2023.

🌧️ Many jobs were outsourced to cheaper countries.

Then after 15 months, I learnt that

✏️ There is no point stressing about the uncontrollable!

✏️ There are opportunities even in down cycles

For example, because of the uncertain economic outlook, people decided to sell and rent.

🏠 Hence, my rental income went up by 15%.

I am learning to navigate the bad times with new solutions and trying out different things at a time!

🌤️ How about you?

🌤️ Have you found a way to survive or benefit from the down economy?

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