Stop being sad, it's Tet!

(Dan Tri) - A sad economic year. That's the saying we've been hearing all these days. But it's Tet, stop being sad, okay?

In 2010, my wife was the director of a real estate company. She took office right when the real estate crisis hit rock bottom. I thought that was the most difficult year for real estate in particular and my family in general. Because that year, we bought our first house by borrowing from the bank at an interest rate of up to 17.4%. The couple worked hard to maintain the life of a family of 5, support both parents, and pay the bank loan interest. And then everything was overcome. Remembering those years makes me appreciate this marriage more. But this year, 2023, real estate is even more difficult than 2010. My wife is no longer in real estate, but my family business is still dependent on real estate. If before, my family's business produced dozens of curtains every day, recently, the number of new apartments handed over has dropped significantly, sometimes only a dozen curtains are made every week, and most of them are friends calling to change new curtains. Many curtain fabric suppliers also opened retail and curtain sewing businesses. Many real estate-related businesses also suffered. Facing the risk of having to cut staff, rotating work. There were nights, at 2am, I reached over and didn't see my wife, so I went to the living room and saw her reading a book with the lamp on.

The spring smile of a cheerful flower seller at Quang Truong flower market, Dong Nai province (Photo: Tran Huu Cuong).

2023 is really a difficult economic year for many small businesses like my family business. It was even more difficult during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are real estate companies with hundreds of people but only 1.5 transactions a month. (Because there was a duplicate transaction, they only received 50% of the transaction fee). Some of my friends "showed off" their Tet bonuses in the form of the company's own products that my friend was in charge of selling. The boss told them to sell them without having to pay the company anymore, considering it as the company's Tet bonus. My friend is still lucky because there are others whose salaries are owed, let alone having a Tet bonus. Difficulties make everyone's family atmosphere gloomy. One of my brothers has just completed his divorce from his wife after 20 years of marriage. There are many reasons, including reasons that happened 20 years ago that his wife still mentions. But I realized one thing, a very pitiful reason: His wife had just lost her job at the age of 45. The company went bankrupt. At the age of 45, for a woman whose ability is not outstanding, finding a new job is really difficult. Quitting her job and being a wife 100% of the time, especially when the children are all grown up and have their own lives, she is idle and falls into depression. Meanwhile, he is rushing to earn money to make up for his wife's income, so he is busy all day long. The couple just drifted apart without realizing it. The wife stays at home all day so she starts to be more critical, the couple is always arguing. When she can't stand it anymore, his wife suggests a divorce. He is very shocked. After 20 years of thinking the marriage is stable, it only takes one year of unemployment, facing each other all day to see all the things that don't suit her. Difficulties can become a catalyst for couples to love each other more, but difficulties can also cause a marriage to break up. It is still how we face them and turn danger into opportunity or danger into harm. I told my brother: "What makes your wife want to let go is not economic difficulties but the bond". Like my wife, she does not want to cut any staff in my family business for the reason: They have followed my husband and I for 10 years. There are people who say that they want to work for my husband and I until they are no longer able to work. So it is easy to say let go, but it is difficult to let go of one's conscience. So at 2am my wife is still reading a book, not to find a solution but just to calm her mind. So instead of sleeping in and letting my wife sleep, I make a pot of tea and we read together. There are many books written about overcoming difficulties. I can quote or even recommend many books to everyone. But whether or not you can overcome them depends on your heart. Like my brother's wife, choosing to cut down on her marriage to overcome the difficulties of unemployment depression. Like my wife choosing to keep her employees to overcome the difficulties together. Real estate is frozen, not many new houses are handed over, creating new jobs for her old employees. With a professional curtain sewing and installation team for 10 years, my wife turned her laundry business into number 1 thanks to curtain washing and repair, taking advantage of her family's professional curtain sewing team to repair curtains for customers who wash curtains. Perhaps no one in the laundry market has professional curtain sewing, curtain installation workers and laundry services like my family. Nearly 60 employees have work to do instead of waiting for the real estate to stop moving. Although there are still many difficulties, but having a destination means not having to worry about not having a way out. 2024, I don't know how many more changes there will be, but doesn't every change make us grow up a little bit? Learning to adapt in a changing society is what the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us, the era of AI has taught us. Artificial intelligence is getting smarter, but emotional intelligence is still what controls this world . And difficulties are the exercises that help us develop our emotional intelligence. This Tet, the Tet bonus may be less, the economy may have to be stretched, but the handshake must not be let go. My wife said: "This Tet, I will give my employees a lucky money for a day of labor, but no one needs to go to work. I want them to spend time with their families, the home front and be the "cool" battery charger for my employees". And I saw the sparkle in my wife's eyes that made her incredibly lovely.

Dantri.com.vn

Source link